The SHOEBOX Blog

Hearing is a sense that many of us take for granted but it is essential to our well being and for keeping us connected to our friends, family, peers, and colleagues. Unfortunately there comes a time for almost everyone – 1 in 3 over the age of 65 to be exact –  where hearing clearly in a noisy environment starts to become difficult. We may have trouble talking on the telephone or engaging in conversation in a busy restaurant. Have you started turning up the volume on the television to hear it clearly?

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The ear is a complicated piece of anatomy. Simply put, sound waves pass through the ear canal causing the eardrum to vibrate which in turn moves the small bones of the middle ear. The movement of the last small bone taps on the cochlea — the spiralled tube known as the inner ear — which is filled with liquid and microscopic cells including stereocilia that have hair-like endings. When sound reaches the cochlea, vibrations move the hairs creating a nerve signal understood by the brain as sound. When everything is working well, messages are received loud and clear. But with so many moving parts there are many ways and degrees to which we can do damage to our hearing. This article explores tinnitus, one of the possible side effects of not properly protecting our hearing. According to the U.S Centers for Disease Control, approximately 15% of the general public, or 50 million Americans, experience some form of tinnitus in their lifetime.

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With today’s ongoing advancements in technology, including new automated tablet based audiometers, offering your patients a clinically valid, diagnostic hearing test is now a possibility.  These modern, mobile audiometers make accurate hearing testing fast, simple, and cost effective. In this article we summarize why you should consider adding  hearing testing to your practice and how to get started.

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As the old saying goes, necessity is the mother of invention. Quite literally this is how the company I currently run got started. It’s a medical device business that was founded by an ENT surgeon.  He used to make twice-yearly humanitarian trips. For months before each trip, he and his team would fundraise so that they could purchase the expensive and specialized testing equipment needed while they were there. They would then donate and leave it behind at the clinics they visited. But upon each return trip, he often found this equipment damaged or missing. Or worse, it went unused because of a shortage of professionals trained on how to operate the units. Frustrated by what he saw, he thought there had to be a better way.

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If you haven’t seen the news, we announced $6M in Series A funding led by Whitecap Venture Partners. This brings the total amount invested in our company to $9.5 million to date, so we are taking a moment to celebrate.

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