Clearwater Clinical, a Canadian medical device company, wants to address the challenges facing the hearing industry by developing a self-directed hearing test to help communities underserved by audiologists. In an interview with CEO Michael Weider, who pitched the company’s approach at the Venture+ Forum at HIMSS this week, he said he sees the tablet-based testing platform, called Shoebox, as a way to make hearing tests more accessible and portable.
“We have really tapped into an unmet need. Shoebox has changed the whole interface of how hearing tests can be done by making it simple,” Weider said.
There are a couple of versions of its test — one aimed at children and another for adults.
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Currently, audio tests are frequently done in a booth to filter out ambient noise. At companies required by OSHA to test employees, a mobile testing facility equipped with a testing labs is driven to places of work and employees are tested one by one. Weider calls the current practice antiquated and expensive.
The aging baby boomer population is at retirement age and older, and are more likely to experience hearing loss. Nearly two-thirds of seniors have some degree of hearing loss, but seniors often decline to get their hearing checked, perhaps because the cost of hearing aids has been so exorbitant.
Clearwater’s approach is intended for use by primary care physicians, audiologists and for companies in industries that are required to provide audio testing for employees such as the oil and gas industry. Weider added that its test could also be used to evaluate people with cochlear implants to ensure the devices are functioning properly. He emphasized that its Shoebox test is not designed for a direct-to-consumer model.
Other companies are trying to bring down the price of hearing aids such as Audicus, Jacoti and Embrace Hearing, all of which sell lower cost hearing aids.
Among its other devices, Clearwater developed a HIPAA-compliant way to use a smartphone to capture and record video from an endoscope (Clearscope) as well as using a smartphone to record, archive and exchange mobile medical video and photography that it claims is HIPAA compliant (Modica).
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