i3 - September/October 2017 - 37

By Jeremy Snow

Policy

P O L I CY U P DAT E

CTA Proposal for Over-the-Counter
Hearing Devices Becomes Law

Kevin Rivoli/Associated Press

n August 18, 2017, President Trump signed the
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Reauthorization
Act into law. Embedded in the new law is a CTAchampioned provision to make hearing aids available overthe-counter. Affordable and effective, personal sound amplification products (PSAPs) offer musicians and many others
a new way to follow their passion.

One morning, Richard Einhorn woke
recorded music come to life. While
up to experience a musician's worst
Einhorn regularly uses a hearing aid
nightmare. An incredibly rare condition
for daily conversations, the higher and
took one of his most precious gifts - his lower frequencies common in music
hearing. He calls it one of the worst days are much harder to discern.
of his life. Einhorn suddenly found himIn 2014, he used his first OTC
self part of the 20 percent of Americans
device for music, the difference was
with some degree of hearing loss and,
life-changing. The first song he listened
like many of them, he was unsure if he
to was Bob Dylan's "Tangled up in Blue"
would effectively hear again.
- it was perfect, he says. "I could hear
Before the condition, he made his
everything: the bass, the guitar, Dylan's
living as a composer and musician
voice," he says. "It sounded just as
and gained worldwide recognition for
good as I remembered. I listened to
his award-winning 1994 composition,
Voices of Light, an opera inspired by the
silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc.
Einhorn still composes today, thanks to
the bag full of hearing devices and portable microphones he uses daily, alongside various phone apps. But some of
Einhorn's most important devices are
over-the-counter (OTC) hearing
devices known as PSAPs.
These devices are great news
for anyone with mild to moderate
Richard Einhorn
hearing loss or who may have
still composes
today, thanks to
trouble hearing in a busy restauover-the-counter
rant. And unlike other hearing
hearing devices
aids, which require a visit to a docknown as PSAPs.
tor, they can be ordered online or
picked up at a store. Plus, they are
one-tenth the cost of ordinary hearing
aids, ranging in price from $100 to $600.
For professional musicians like
Einhorn, these devices are a perfect fit.
Most hearing aids are hardwired for
speech, not the audio complexities
music presents that make live and
C TA . t e c h / i 3

the song with a hearing aid shortly
after and it just wasn't the same."
Despite his success with them,
current FDA regulations require OTC
devices not be marketed as hearing
solutions that treat mild to moderate
hearing loss. As a result, many people
have missed out and are just starting
to notice. Einhorn says he barely knows
another musician using them. But their
popularity is growing. CTA research
predicts more than one million wearable hearing aids will be sold this year.
Paired with strong, responsible
guidelines on their creation, putting
these devices on the shelves can provide
a more personal solution to hearing
loss with less commitment, he said.
And once musicians have them, Einhorn
says they would become more encouraged to combat their hearing loss or
visit an audiologist.

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

http://www.cta.tech.com

i3 - September/October 2017

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