Vision 2020: Creating the Future of Hearing Healthcare

By Timothy Cooke

At the end of 2013, we set out to collaboratively create a global vision of hearing healthcare in 2020.

To gain global perspectives and insights, we conducted three, one-day satellite meetings in the UK, Australia, and the United States. Then, we held a three-day summit in Denmark in February to synthesize themes, formulate the overall vision, and identify ways forward. Participants at the final summit included Ida advisory board members and faculty members from previous Ida seminars.

At the meetings, we explored challenges, opportunities, and emerging trends in hearing healthcare. Here are some of the trends and challenges we identified:

  • Emerging association between aging, cognitive decline, and hearing loss
     
  • Remote delivery of hearing care services/sales paired with self-fitting and self-adjusting technology
     
  • Hearing technology connected to other technologies and consumer electronics / universal design
     
  • Changing health care systems with limited resources tasked with providing services to an aging population
     
  • Hybrid system emerging in some countries where public hearing care services exist alongside private dispensers and clinics

We also identified four roadmaps that can help achieve a vision where people worldwide can participate fully by creating affordable and accessible hearing care. The four roadmaps are:

  1. Operationalize patient-centered care and strengthen the bond between patients and professionals
     
  2. Create a 'United Nations of Hearing Health Care' to unify global stakeholders around a common cause
     
  3. Leverage trends in technology, service delivery, and consumer electronics to address accessibility, quality, and affordability
     
  4. Address ethics and values to ensure that changes in hearing health care positively affect patients.
     

We look forward to collaborating with our community to explore how we can work together to achieve a future hearing healthcare that addresses the human dynamics of hearing loss.

More to come in the future!