[Access] Fwd: Raves (Yes, It's True) for New Hearing Aid

Wed Apr 16 23:38:50 CDT 2008

Hi Mariah,

Do you know about the Blanche fischer Foundation?  You submit a request for
equipment and have to pay part of it, but...
you have to be an Oregon resident and low income, and have a disability...
you're all those yes?
go to that web site I think it's just their name.org

blanchefischer.org
but not sure, sorry.

j-m.

  _____  

From: access-bounces at uueugene.org [mailto:access-bounces at uueugene.org] On
Behalf Of d. maria
Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 12:22 AM
To: Access Issues and Discussion
Subject: Re: [Access] Fwd: Raves (Yes, It's True) for New Hearing Aid

David, hearing aides generally cost $3,000 to 5,000. At $3,000 a year, this
is not cheap!!!
I will never be able to afford a hearing aid, (it took me 5 years to pay off
my oral surgery and false teeth due to an infection). One would have to be
wealthy to afford this new thing. Sounds good, tho. I can't figure out why
there are ways to get drugs, eye glasses, and all other devises... even
wheel chairs, when they are not covered by standard insurance... but, no one
covers hearing aides. this makes no sense to me. Not being able to hear
impedes communication. dm

On Apr 15, 2008, at 11:14 PM, David Gilmartin wrote:

Received this information (sort of a combo story and promotion, I thought)
from a friend of mine. Though it seems a bit pricy to me, I know hearing
aids often cost quite a bit. There's a website mentioned in the story that
will get you a bit more detail and some graphics.

David Gilmartin

New York Times  --  April 15, 2008
Well

Raves (Yes, It's True) for New Hearing Aid

By TARA PARKER-POPE

Few products are hated as much as hearing aids.

The devices can squeal with feedback and overamplify background noises like
the click of a turn signal or whir of a ceiling fan. They must be removed
for showering or sleeping, and their batteries die frequently. Many users,
out of exasperation, decide they'd rather live with hearing loss.

But now scientists have come up with a different kind of hearing aid. While
the device, called the Lyric, is being used in only 500 patients, it appears
to have overcome many of the problems associated with traditional hearing
aids - without the expense and uncertainty of surgery and anesthesia.

The Lyric, made by InSound Medical of Newark, Calif., is hidden deep inside
the ear canal, just four millimeters (about one-sixth of an inch) from the
ear drum. While doctors for years have been implanting hearing devices in
the middle ear, the Lyric is not an implant: it can be removed with a small
magnet. It is worn 24 hours a day, and its batteries last one to four
months.

Typically, anything that clogs the ear canal would trap moisture and pose an
infection risk, but the Lyric is surrounded by a spongy material that allows
moisture to escape. Because it sits so close to the ear drum, doctors say
that it works more efficiently and that sounds are more natural because they
don't have to be amplified as much.

When the Lyric's battery dies, the entire device is replaced. Patients do
not pay for a new device every time; instead, they pay an annual
subscription fee of $2,900 to $3,600 for both ears (less if the hearing loss
is in only one ear). Insurance plans typically do not cover the cost of the
Lyric, or any other hearing device.

A magnet is used to control the volume, turn it on and off and remove it
when the battery runs out. It takes only a few minutes for a doctor to
insert a replacement device.

The Lyric does not work for everyone. In particular, some ear canals are too
narrow to accommodate it, and the company estimates that it is not suitable
for up to half of potential patients. A planned newer version should work
for about 85 percent of patients, it says.

Still, it is already getting an enthusiastic reception from patients and
from hearing specialists not connected with the company. "There are a
certain number of patients who just can't get over having something in their
ear, just as there are a certain number of patients who can't wear contact
lenses," said Dr. Chester F. Griffiths, chairman of the department of
surgery at the Santa Monica U.C.L.A. Medical Center. "But that's the
minority. The patients that have them love them."

Dr. Griffiths says he has no financial ties to the Lyric, nor does he
receive a commission for referring patients.

One patient who swears by the device is Mike Waufle, the 53-year-old
defensive line coach for the New York Giants. After a stint in the Marines
and regular exposure to the sounds of gunfire, Mr. Waufle suffered hearing
loss that grew worse and worse as he aged.

On the football field, he just turned up the volume on his headset. But the
locker room was a different story. Some voices were impossible to hear
(including that of his last boss, Jon Gruden, the former Oakland Raiders
head coach). Players learned they needed to face him when they spoke to him.
Using a traditional hearing aid, he found it difficult to control his own
voice.

"I teach a lot in a classroom as a coach, but when I would wear a hearing
aid my voice pattern wasn't very good," he said. "It was all over the place.
I just took it out most of the time. I missed an awful lot."

As it happened, a team doctor was one of a handful of physicians
test-marketing the Lyric, which has been available for about 16 months. Mr.
Waufle tried it, and he says it has changed his life.

"My voice pattern is so natural, and I hear so much better," he said.
"Obviously, it's easier to carry on normal conversations without having to
always say, 'Huh? What did you say?' And it helps just enjoying life over
all and being able to hear the simple things like birds and other sounds you
take for granted."

Mr. Waufle says he has no financial ties to the company and receives no
benefit for talking about his experience with the device. (The company says
none of the people featured in testimonials on its Web site,
www.lyrichearing.com, receive any form of compensation for their
endorsements.)

Right now, the Lyric is offered only through a dozen clinics in California,
Florida and New Jersey, but it should be available at about 100 sites by the
end of the year. Some patients who don't live near a clinic simply fly or
drive to a site four or five times a year. InSound is a privately held firm,
although the pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson is a major investor.

Dr. Robert A. Schindler, a co-founder of InSound and chairman emeritus of
the department of otolaryngology at the University of California, San
Francisco, says he has had hearing loss most of his life and has worn a
Lyric since 2005. He says he remembers listening to an orchestra and hearing
the light ping of the triangle.

"I realized I hadn't heard it before," he said. "That was a very exciting
moment for me."

E-mail: well at nytimes.com

--_______________________________________________

Access mailing list
Access at uueugene.org
http://www.uueugene.org
http://www.uueugene.org/mailman/listinfo/access

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.uueugene.org/pipermail/access/attachments/20080416/e3609aae/attachment.html 