Dr. David Akbari is senior medical science, clinical, and regulatory affairs liaison at Intricon Corporation, makers of hearing technology, components, and hearing aids since 1977. Most recently, he was involved in the development of Intricon’s new self-fitting technology for OTC hearing aids. A licensed audiologist, Dr. Akbari is involved in auditory neuroscience, language development, physical acoustics, development of fitting rationales used in amplification, and interacting with the ANSI and IEC committees to develop standard measures for hearing aid evaluation. He is also the chairperson of the ANSI/ASA S3 Working Group 48. He earned his AuD in audiology and master’s degree in speech-language-hearing sciences at the University of Minnesota.
If FDA's decision on making hearing aids available over the counter leads to greater adoption, it could encourage consumers to learn more about their condition, and therefore improve the health literacy of the public. The downstream effect of this is to increase the perceived value of the audiologist beyond mere salespeople of a medical device, which audiologists everywhere should applaud.