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Disruptions to the hearing health sector

Nature Medicine volume 29, pages 19–21 (2023)Cite this article

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Technological innovation and changes to regulation are disrupting the hearing health sector, with implications for data privacy, product safety and accessibility, and provide challenges and opportunities for equitable hearing health.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Communication Sciences, Sydney School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Isabelle Boisvert

  2. Centre for Disability Research and Policy, Sydney School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Isabelle Boisvert & Jennifer Smith-Merry

  3. Biomedical Informatics and Digital Health, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Adam G. Dunn

  4. Macquarie Business School, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Erik Lundmark

  5. Department of Philosophy, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Wendy Lipworth

  6. Department of Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Amber Willink

  7. Centre for Patient Reported Outcome Research, Institute of Applied Health Research, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Sarah E. Hughes & Melanie Calvert

  8. Birmingham Health Partners Centre for Regulatory Science and Innovation, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Sarah E. Hughes & Melanie Calvert

  9. National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) West Midlands, Birmingham, UK

    Sarah E. Hughes & Melanie Calvert

  10. UK SPINE, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Sarah E. Hughes & Melanie Calvert

  11. Collaborator with lived experience of hearing loss. Disability Leadership Institute, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Michele Nealon

  12. DEMAND Hub, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Melanie Calvert

  13. NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre, University Hospital Birmingham and University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Melanie Calvert

Authors
  1. Isabelle Boisvert
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  2. Adam G. Dunn
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  3. Erik Lundmark
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  4. Jennifer Smith-Merry
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  5. Wendy Lipworth
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  6. Sarah E. Hughes
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  7. Michele Nealon
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  8. Melanie Calvert
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Contributions

I.B., A.D., E.L., J.S.M. and W.L. conceived and developed the main ideas for this article. I.B. led the writing with substantial contributions from A.D., E.L. and M.C. All authors provided critical input, and approved the final version. M.N. provided a critical review from the perspective of a person with lived experience of hearing loss.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Isabelle Boisvert.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

I.B. is a collaborator on projects that receive funding from Cochlear, but maintains academic independence for all research initiatives. S.E.H. receives funding from the NIHR Blood and Transplant Research Unit (BTRU) in Precision Therapeutics, UKRI, National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) COVID-19 Relief Fund, UK SPINE and declares personal fees from Cochlear, Astra Zeneca, CIS Oncolog, and Aparito outside the submitted work. M.C. receives funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre, the NIHR Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre, NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) West Midlands, the NIHR Blood and Transplant Research Unit (BTRU) in Precision Therapeutics, UK SPINE, European Regional Development Fund – Demand Hub and Health Data Research UK at the University of Birmingham and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, Innovate UK (part of UKRI), Macmillan Cancer Support, UCB Pharma, Janssen, GSK and Gilead. M.C. has received personal fees from Astellas, Aparito, CIS Oncology, Takeda, Merck, Daiichi Sankyo, Glaukos, GSK and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) outside the submitted work; and a family member owns shares in GSK. The other authors declare having no relevant competing interests. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not necessarily those of their employing institutions.

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Boisvert, I., Dunn, A.G., Lundmark, E. et al. Disruptions to the hearing health sector. Nat Med 29, 19–21 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-022-02086-6

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