Ten years ago, an audiologist noticed how some patients were being fit with hearing aids not appropriate for their hearing, so he decided to do something about it.

By Abram Bailey, Au.D.

I studied biopsychology as an undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin. My goal was to get into neuroscience, and at UT I worked in a visual neuroscience lab studying the visual cortex of cats and monkeys. 

Unfortunately, my experience working in the lab was short lived because I am a huge animal lover and I couldn't handle seeing the animals subjected to that type of experimentation. I started to realize that a career in neuroscience was not for me, and went to Google to research other graduate programs that accepted students with psychology and/or biology backgrounds. 

Well, the joke goes that I didn't spend much time researching because the list of possible graduate programs was in alphabetical order and I obviously didn't get past the As. Up until that point, I had never heard the term audiology, but I was super excited to learn that such a field existed. 

I took a great class about human perception in the psych department at UT, and a big chunk of the class focused on acoustics and human hearing, so I was already interested in learning more. Plus I am a huge music lover, and have always been interested in the creation and perception of sound. So, it seemed like a perfect fit. 

I applied to a bunch of schools and to my great surprise, got accepted everywhere I applied. I ended up selecting Vanderbilt because the brand new rebuilt Bill Wilkerson Center was incredible, especially the new floor-spanning anechoic chamber, and I wanted to work in the Dan Maddox Hearing Aid Research Laboratory. I did end up working at the lab and learned a ton about hearing aids and experimental design. 

For my externship, I moved to New Zealand to work as a clinical audiologist at Bay Audiology. After completing my externship, I stayed on for four more years, mostly because I met my future wife while living in Auckland. 

At one stage, I took over a clinic in a shopping mall. That was the job from hell because about 90 percent of the active patients had been fit with a particular model of hearing aid, despite many being outside the fitting range of those devices. Real ear measurements (REMs) had never been run on these patients, and running REMs revealed most had only a fraction of the gain needed to benefit. 

I refit probably 50 patients with ear molds, but this model had terrible feedback cancellation and for many patients, nothing could be done, and most of them were beyond the return period for the devices by the time I saw them. 

Worse yet, Auckland is a humid place and these devices had a terrible habit of failing when exposed to the least bit of moisture. Many of my patients had five or more warranty repairs within the first year. 

While this was happening, other clinics continued selling this product, and all I could think was, "Someone really needs to make a product review website for hearing aids to help people make better purchasing decisions.” 

I joined a local web development programming group, and over the next year developed the first version of HearingTracker.com to solve this problem. The result was a simple, objective, consumer-driven hearing aid review platform.

It took some time, but I eventually convinced my wife to move back to the States with me, and in 2013, I launched the website at the American Academy of Audiology’s convention in Orlando and the Hearing Loss Association of America’s convention in Austin.

The reception was positive at both conventions, with both professionals and consumers validating the need for more product transparency in the marketplace. Remember, before 2013, online product research for hearing aids pretty much consisted of reading the marketing language on the manufacturers' websites.

HearingTracker has evolved a lot over the past decade. We now host the industry's most robust hearing aid comparison engine, which allows apples to apples hardware and software feature comparisons between hearing aids from different product families and brands.

This year we added hearing aid audio recordings and performance metrics from our partner HearAdvisor, to make it even easier for consumers to compare hearing devices. We see on average over 1.5 million annual visitors to the website, and based on our survey data 50 percent are researching new or replacement hearing aids for themselves, and another 25 percent are doing so for a loved one. 

We also publish a comprehensive map of local hearing clinics, searchable by service or hearing aid brand. This is a great resource for educated consumers. We make it easy to find a provider that can fit your hearing aids using REMs and other best practices. 

Another graphic we update annually is a hearing industry map that shows how dozens and dozens of hearing aid brands are actually coming from just eight major producers worldwide, along with dozens of smaller brands, which is expected to grow even more with the new over-the-counter category.

We also host hearing aid forums on our website and Facebook, including a group and digital newsletter for audiologists and other professionals. We are also very much involved in academic and market research, with over 1,800 practicing audiologists on a research panel, plus a panel of hearing aid users, to work with all the major hearing aid brands and smaller ones to answer market research questions. While we do take advertising from hearing aid manufacturers, this does not affect our reviews.

As for my own hearing, it’s been a few years since I’ve been tested (I know, I am due for another!), but my last audiogram was normal. However, testing at Vanderbilt while studying for my Au.D. showed diminished OAEs (otoacoustic emissions, another hearing measurement). I do have trouble hearing in background noise, so I suspect I have hidden hearing loss from all those years exposing myself to loud decibels at concerts and raves in my youth. I also experience fairly loud tinnitus when in quiet, but I mostly get away with ignoring it. When I'm really stressed it can drive me a little nuts. 

A friend once shot a shotgun right next to my right ear and my right ear is noticeably worse. In terms of balance, I'm okay, but testing in the rotary chair (again at Vanderbilt) showed diminished vestibular activity at low frequencies, which may have something to do with my predisposition for motion sickness whenever I'm a passenger in a car, boat, or small plane.

Earlier this year my wife and I decided to move from Austin, where my retired parents live, back to New Zealand to raise our three kids and be closer to her family. I keep in touch with my friends back in Austin thanks to the interwebs, mostly by playing putt-putt golf in virtual reality. 

I love live music, and I'm an avid jogger. Nothing beats running through the mountains or along the coast listening to my favorite tunes, though I am mindful to always listen at a safe volume. Also thanks to the magic of the internet I am able to keep running HearingTracker. Our goal remains helping consumers make more informed purchasing decisions.

Abram Bailey, Au.D., is the founder and president of HearingTracker, a partner with HHF’s Keep Listening prevention campaign. For more, see hearingtracker.com.

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