Some of the comments on here demonstrate that few readers actually know what a hearing aid does. In a majority of hearing loss cases, you can't simply amplify the sound and call it a day. If you want to do that, go buy a $20 amplifying device online. Hearing loss is usually characterized by an inability to hear different frequencies at differing levels. When you get a hearing aid, the audiologist has to tune it to your particular graph. Most modern hearing aids also come with speech detection, background noise reduction, etc., also tuned to the wearer's loss. Mine have bluetooth capabilities built in as well and can be synced to my phone, laptop, etc.
Not everything is something you can throw some Arduino parts and Python code at, contrary to what half of HN seems to think some times. This isn't to say that prices are not ridiculously high, but at the end of the day, they are a medical device that require a trained professional to tune.
Source: worn hearing aids since I was 3 years old.
My relative has had hearing aids for many years. Her loss is profound, and her hearing aids are apparently quite sophisticated. The "tuning" consists of the audiologist fiddling with a GUI while my relative says if it sounds better or worse.
Maybe it's not a racket, but they're trying awfully damn hard to make it seem like one.
That isn't how it works at all. It is far more than an audiologist "fiddling with a GUI". The audiologist first does a hearing test, which is gives an audiogram which is a gain versus frequency plot that takes into account equal loudness curves. This is how they know to recommend hearing aids in the first place. This is the initial basis for tuning. Final tuning lets them adjust for things like ear canal size.
If patents tuned it themselves, they would have too little gain at high frequencies since they may not have heard these frequencies in years and think they sound unnatural. It takes a while to become "used" to hearing aids because patients haven't heard the usual sounds of life like paper rustling in years.
That's why the real question is whether audiologists can be automated away. Is it really so hard to imagine an at-home, self-administered hearing test? Put on a harness, hook it up to your smartphone, answer questions whether the tones are too loud or too quiet by tapping on the screen. Answer speech-comprehension questions by tapping out the word you hear. The app can then program, based on the test results, your hearing aids, sold to you by the same manufacturer of the app and the harness.
People who think that hearing aids can be replaced by a $200 in-ear amplifier don't understand the domain they're talking about, but there's still much that could be disrupted within this space.
That's an interesting idea. You are missing the part where an audiologist inspects your ear to see if there is a ton of earwax, infection, or other foreign body. There is also more test equipment than that often goes with a hearing test. I know some audiogram and reflex results can be indicative of things like a brain tumor which will result in an immediate referral to a ENT.
And there's the whole counseling aspect of telling someone they (or their child) has a hearing loss.
Checking if an ear is affected by earwax / infection / foreign body can be carried out by a nurse, who doesn't need nearly as much education. This is besides the fact that audiologists don't typically deal with earwax / infections / foreign bodies anyway, and typically refer to an ENT anyway. Even after regulation which only permits the sale of the physical equipment which would pair with your smartphone after a prescription from an ENT who sees no sign of other problems, it would still drastically reduce costs for the end consumer, who would never need to set foot in an audiology office.
And pediatric hearing loss is a fraction of all hearing loss patients... don't make the perfect the enemy of the good ;)
So it sounds like you are proposing a way of doing audiograms at home. I don't think this is the most significant cost of hearing aids. What is the average cost of an audiogram, maybe $100? You can already buy hearing aids online if you submit an audiogram. If you still need to visit an ENT office anyway, many larger ENT clinics (especially at hospitals) have audiologists in the clinic already.
It may not be a racket, but as someone with hl i can assure you there is no reason why these shd cost less than 10x their current price.
The ability to program the HA per user is not really difficult and in today's world should not even need a direct person it should be able to be done directly.
I personally feel amplification should be done on the phone, good ML algorithms utilized there depending on the ambient sounds and then transmitted to bluetooth HA.
If an industry can make near invisible bluetooth HA they will unlock a huge market
Not everything is something you can throw some Arduino parts and Python code at, contrary to what half of HN seems to think some times. This isn't to say that prices are not ridiculously high, but at the end of the day, they are a medical device that require a trained professional to tune.
Source: worn hearing aids since I was 3 years old.