Innovative Hearing Aid Provider Oticon to Debut at The Wearables Show 2018

OThe Oticon HearingFitness™ App is the start of data-driven hearing care, enabling a more personalised hearing care than ever before

The company behind the world’s first internet-connected hearing aid, and now the world’s first hearing health fitness tracker, is to showcase its new HearingFitness™ App for the first time in the UK #Hearingkeepsyoufit

Copenhagen, Denmark, March 13th, 2018 – Leading hearing aid provider, Oticon, is pleased to announce that it is to debut at The Wearables Show 2018. Oticon will use the major event to introduce and demonstrate the world’s first hearing fitness tracking technology. Oticon’s soon to be launched HearingFitness™ App is used in conjunction with Oticon Opn™ hearing aids, the world’s first internet-connected hearing aid. Both will be showcased to WTS18 visitors on stand G32, March 13-14, 2018.

OThe Oticon HearingFitness™ App is the start of data-driven hearing care, enabling a more personalised hearing care than ever before. The app gives insights* into the daily use of Oticon’s Opn™ hearing aids and enables users to constantly optimise their solution to their specific, individual and changing needs and sound environments to fulfil their hearing potential in different situations.

HearingFitness™ is designed to help people with hearing loss understand how their behaviour and hearing health habits can influence how effective their hearing aid is and the impact it has on their overall health and well-being. For example, HearingFitness™ encourages users to wear their hearing aids more which helps those with hearing loss benefit from the many positive health improvements that come from wearing hearing aids.

Wearing Opn™ hearing aids lets users once again enjoy sound and social interaction, both of which stimulate the brain and ultimately help reduce the common side effects associated with untreated hearing loss, such as fatigue, withdrawal and stress. Addressing hearing loss effectively in mid-life by wearing hearing aids may even reduce the risk of early on-set dementia. In a recent study authored by the Lancet commissions on Dementia Prevention, Intervention, and Care, hearing loss was listed as the largest modifiable risk factor contributing to Dementia**.

Future developments for Oticon’s HearingFitness™ App will include the ability to constantly adapt and improve the user’s hearing solution over time.Ultimately, HearingFitness™ will be able to help provide better and better speech understanding and comfort for people with hearing loss, and in turn, free more and more cognitive energy to be used for other tasks, such as memory recall.

“HearingFitness™ provides Opn™ hearing aid users with advice and encouragement on ways to use their hearing aid more, hear better, and ultimately stay healthy,” says Michael Porsbo, Product Manager, Oticon. “The first of its kind, this new app is designed to empower a digital generation of hearing aid users to make informed personal treatment decisions and take control of their hearing and health.”

Oticon hearing technology specialists and audiologists will be available on the Oticon stand to discuss how the world’s first hearing tracking technology will help people with hearing loss lead healthier lives. Visitors to WTS18 can also enjoy demonstrations on how people with hearing loss can use the IFTTT network and Oticon’s Opn™ internet-connected hearing aids to create ‘smart’ IoT applets, enabling them to connect several IoT Smart devices and services. They can also meet Oticon and hear how Opn™ hearing aids users enjoy features to enhance their lifestyle and even gain advantages that people without a hearing aid do not have!

-ENDS-

About Oticon

500 million people worldwide suffer from hearing loss. The majority are over the age of 50 while eight percent are under the age of 18. It is Oticon's ambition that our customers - hearing clinics throughout the world - prefer to use our products for people with impaired hearing. Through passion, dedication and professional expertise, Oticon develops and manufactures hearing aids for both adults and children. Oticon supports every kind of hearing loss from mild to severe and we pride ourselves on developing some of the most innovative hearing aids in the market. Headquartered out of Denmark, we are a global company and part of William Demant Holding Group with more than 12,000 employees and revenues of over DKK 12 billion. www.oticon.global

*HearingFitness insights are based on big data analytics that combine lifestyle and healthcare data with local sound environment analysis.
**Livingstone et al, 2017 – Dementia prevention, intervention and care