Announcements

A review published in the MDPI Journal examines tech used in auditory rehabilitation outside of traditional hearing aids and cochlear implants. From 141 studies published between 2018 and 2024, the authors identified 16 frequently used tools such as mobile apps, telehealth platforms, FM systems and vibrotactile devices. The meta-analysis found that telehealth and app-based tools supported remote…

Beltone has begun its third annual “Hear for the Holidays” campaign, through the Beltone Hearing Care Foundation, offering free hearing aids to eligible individuals. The giveaway runs until December 31, 2025, and nominations are open for people to apply either on their own behalf or on behalf of someone they know. Over the past decade, the Foundation has donated more than 8,300 hearing aids; last…

A former Tesla employee named Hans Kohls, who is deaf and uses hearing aids, says the company fired him after he asked to be moved to a different part of the Austin Gigafactory. He worked in the casting area where molten aluminum reaches very high temperatures, and he says the heat kept damaging his hearing aids. Kohls asked to transfer to a cooler department as an accommodation. The lawsuit says…

A review of 17 studies that included almost four thousand people with type 2 diabetes and a similar number without it found a strong link between diabetes and hearing loss. In the diabetes group, about 40 to 72 percent had some level of hearing loss. Overall, people with diabetes were a little more than four times more likely to have hearing loss than people without diabetes. The biggest…

ABC News reports that a 3-year-old girl in England, Opal Sandy, was born with profound hearing loss caused by a mutation in the OTOF gene, a condition where the inner ear cannot transmit sound signals to the brain even though the rest of the ear structures are formed. She entered a clinical trial at 11 months old and received a one-time gene therapy injection in her right ear. The treatment…

A recent study shows that infants with sensorineural hearing loss develop different brain network patterns during the first year of life. Researchers used fNIRS scans on more than one hundred infants and found that children with typical hearing begin to show clear left-hemisphere specialization linked to language. Infants with hearing loss, especially those with more severe loss, did not show this…

In a 25-year follow-up of the Framingham Offspring Study, researchers found that more than half of middle-aged participants who had normal hearing at baseline developed hearing loss (56.2%) over two and a half decades. Among the full sample, hearing thresholds worsened on average by 15.1 dB for the pure-tone average (0.5–4 kHz) and by 8.4–35.8 dB across individual frequencies (0.5–8 kHz). Higher…

A new article from the Audiology and Hearing Aid Center examines how hearing technology in 2025 has become smarter, more adaptable, and more user-friendly. Manufacturers are prioritizing AI-driven processors that analyze listening environments in real time, allowing hearing aids to automatically adjust to background noise, speech, and changing surroundings without manual input. This adaptive…

Phonak has released the Infinio Ultra series, the company’s newest generation of hearing aids built to make listening easier and more natural through artificial intelligence. The lineup includes two models, the Ultra R and Ultra Sphere, both powered by a real-time deep neural network chip that processes sound from every direction. The company claims that the chip recognizes up to 18 times more…

Forbes Health released its 2025 list of top-rated hearing aids based on expert reviews, consumer feedback, and performance criteria like speech clarity, comfort, and Bluetooth connectivity. Audiologists on the Forbes Health Advisory Board helped evaluate models for everyday usability and overall value. The Forbes Health Advisory Board includes practicing audiologists such as Dr. Ross Cushing, CEO…