Interview with Jerry Yanz, Ph.D., Director of Audiology, Hansaton

Topic: Hansaton AQ X-Mini and AQ 2G Rechargeable Hearing Aids

Jerry Yanz, Ph.D.

CAROLYN SMAKA: Hi Jerry! Great to see you again.

JERRY YANZ: Hi Carolyn! Great to be here.

SMAKA: Jerry, last May we spoke about your AQ rechargeable system, and I thought it we were about due for an update.



YANZ: Yes, rechargeability is a very important topic in hearing care now.

As you may know, rechargeable products have been in our industry for over 30 years. During that time rechargeable products have never made it into the mainstream, for a variety of reasons. Performance had not met expectations, it hadn't met claims, and the difficulty of using these earlier systems also prevented people from really coming onboard with them.

SMAKA: Can you provide examples? What were some of the problems?

YANZ: Sure - let's break that down a little bit. In order to make a rechargeable system really useable, what does it need? It needs a certain operating time per charge. The key question there is: How long does a person have to wear a hearing aid? What's a typical day? What's a very demanding day?

SMAKA: What's the max?

YANZ: For the worse-case scenario - most active patient? People will generally say 16 hours. Some people will say, "Oh, I have patients who need 18 hours." In the AQ system, we're giving you 20-30 hours per charge in the custom version, and 20 hours per charge in the new AQ X-Mini Receiver-in-Canal (RIC) model.



Hansaton AQ X-Mini Receiver-in-Canal and charging station

SMAKA: So you can use your AQ system through the night, go to bed at 4:00 am, sleep in until 8:00 am and be ready to go again?

YANZ: That's right, and you'll be ready to go again, because it'll probably be fully charged by then.

The recharge time is another question you need to know in considering rechargeable solutions: How long does it take to charge, and to get it back up and running? With our systems, on average, it's 2 to 4 hours.

Now, if you really wear it for 30 hours straight, it'll take you 8 hours to recharge it. But it is unlikely you'll have patients wearing it for 30 hours at a clip, and I don't advise that.

SMAKA: The other question I hear is regarding battery life.

YANZ: Right. By this you mean, the longevity of the battery before you need to replace it, right?

SMAKA: Right.

YANZ: With the AQ system, that's 5 years. We guarantee the battery for 5 years. And, 5 years is about the time people are looking to replace hearing instruments, so we're talking about guaranteeing the battery basically for the life of the instruments in many cases.

Now, there are some other aspects of the AQ rechargeable instruments that make them really excel. One important design decision in rechargeable products is whether we should give consumers access to the battery compartment, so if they forget to charge their hearing aids, they can take the rechargeable battery out and pop a zinc air battery in? That was debated a good deal by our design team and the decision was, no, we don't want to give access for a variety of reasons.

Forgetting that I put a zinc air battery in my hearing aid, and then putting it in the charger could be a big problem. Zinc air batteries don't take well to a recharge current. It could cause that battery to bulge, or even burst, and then it's going to release electrolytes into the inside of the hearing aid, damaging the circuitry. That's one potential error.

SMAKA: Do you think that today, with all the chargeable items we use daily, forgetting to charge is not as much an issue as it may have been 5 years ago? I mean, today we get home, plug in our phones, etc. and carry on. We may have a few extra charging cables around the house, one in the car, etc. That's just life.

YANZ: You're exactly right, and yet some people will argue that, "Oh, I need a back-up." Well, if you're responsible and tuned-in to your own technology, you're right, you shouldn't need it most of the time.

SMAKA: Right.

YANZ: The other issue of allowing access to the battery compartment is putting the battery in correctly. If you're using a rechargeable nickel/metal hydride battery but mistakenly put it upside down in the battery compartment, that's going to cause the same sort of problem as putting in a zinc air battery.

So, at Hansaton we're eliminating these usability problems by sealing the battery inside the shell of the custom product and inside the case for the RIC. That also reduces moisture ingress into the circuitry, which we know can be an issue for traditional instruments. I'm expecting longevity of these hearing aids will be greater than the average instrument.

Another issue that comes up is poor dexterity. What's the biggest problem with replaceable batteries? People fumbling with them. It takes a lot of counseling time to teach people to change batteries. Some people may require a special magnetic tool, or a magnifying glass.

SMAKA: I've changed many a battery door in my day because someone put the battery in the custom product instead of in the battery door, then tried to shove the door closed.

YANZ: Exactly. Or you drop the batteries and you hear people telling stories about crawling under their kitchen table trying to find the battery before the dog swallows it. Since we've eliminated all battery handling issues, there's also no choking or swallowing risk since the wearer never sees or handles the battery.

I've been doing some reading on rechargeable products in general. One author made a very good point - and this wasn't with regard to hearing aids, but just rechargeable devices in general - he said, "Rechargeable devices are a very good idea if, and only if, you never have to touch a battery." I didn't think about it. With your cell phone, your MP3 player, your e-book reader and many other devices out there - you don't even think about the battery.

SMAKA: No, you don't think about it.

YANZ: You may think about the cord, or the charging station, as you said before.
We don't want to think about batteries.

So, we've eliminated all the concerns we've discussed today by designing the most trouble-free hearing aid on the market. From a usability standpoint, there is nothing out there that comes close.

As battery technology evolves, and new power sources become available, my hope is that we can even eliminate the power source some day. We're not there yet, but you never know what the future holds.

SMAKA: You mentioned a custom style and a RIC. Can you go into more details regarding style options?

YANZ: Certainly. The AQ X-Mini is a sealed RIC. It has a small, very streamlined case. There are 3 technology levels and 8 color combinations. As far as gain goes, there are 3 receivers - 45, 55, and 65 dB peak gain in the coupler. You can expect more gain than that in the ear.



The AQ X-Mini is available in 8 color combinations

Depending on your patient's lifestyle demands and budgetary constraints, you can go with the top-end, or "First Class," with 16 channels and 16 bands, and a very complete array of all of the top-end digital signal processing features that you need.

The mid-level is "Business Class;" 12 channels and 12 bands. "Comfort Class" is the entry point with 8 channels and 8 bands. The price range adjusts accordingly, as you would expect.

Custom AQs are available as a full-shell or a half-shell. Like the RIC, there are three technology levels: First, Business, and Comfort Class.

People have asked: Can I get a CIC or a small mini-canal? The size of a battery dictates its capacity, and to date we have not found a small enough battery to fit into these smaller models and also meet our design criteria for battery performance. The current custom instruments will get 20- to 30-hour of use per charge. We haven't yet found a smaller battery that will reliably provide 16-hours per charge, which is our minimum standard to go forward with a new design. In other words, we put a higher priority on performance than cosmetics.

That said, our custom products are unique. In typical custom aids, it is the shell that is custom-made. In the AQs the faceplates are also custom-made, each one sculpted to the contours of the ear. The finish on the faceplate truly blends into the ear. Cosmetically, there is no custom product that comes close.



AQ custom products are created individually from the impression - both the shell and the faceplate. The surface emulates the natural skin structure so that it is hard to tell the difference from the natural ear.

SMAKA: That carrying case also looks unique.

YANZ: Yes, the cup of the carrying case is made from the same impression that the custom product shell is made from. You drop the hearing aid in the case, and it automatically turns off. This smart design feature means that it won't be draining the battery, or whistling away in the case when you're not wearing it.

SMAKA: Will the aid also automatically shut off when in the charger?

YANZ: You betcha. When I put the aid into the charger, it also automatically turns the hearing aid off. A patented digital circuit onboard the hearing aid communicates with a wirelessly with the control circuit in the charger. That's key because that tells the charger when to start charging, and when to finish.

SMAKA: How do you know when it's finished charging?

YANZ: An LCD display on the charger shows an image of a battery, and you'll see animated bars telling you that charging is in process. With the custom product, there's an extra little bonus, and that is, when you put it in the charger, you'll see a light flash right through the faceplate. It'll flash red and green for five to seven seconds during the communication between the hearing aid and the charger. Once it decides that a charge is needed, then the light glows red through the faceplate.

Now, if I were back in the clinic working with patients, I would say, "When ET's heart glows red, you know he's getting stronger. And by morning he's going to be ready to go again."

[laughter]

SMAKA: What if you're like me - can you take it out when it's half charged, and cross your fingers for the rest of the day, or are you compromising the system?

YANZ: Very important question. Earlier rechargeables had memory problems
so if you didn't use the full charge cycle and the full discharge cycle, you compromised the battery memory. With the AQ system, you don't compromise battery performance if you do a partial charge.

SMAKA: So you can just grab and go.

YANZ: Right. If you have a long day at the office, you get home, you want to take a little rest then go out to in the evening, pop it in the charger for an hour. It won't compromise the battery performance or the battery longevity.

SMAKA: Jerry, I saw you on the course listing at AudiologyNOW - what was your presentation about?

YANZ: It was information about the design of the product, and we also talked a little bit about what it takes for new technology to be adopted in the mainstream marketplace.

You're probably familiar with the technology lifecycle model.

SMAKA: Sure.

YANZ: And there are different categories of technology users: both audiologists and patients fall along this continuum, from innovators, to early-adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards - right?

SMAKA: Yes.

YANZ: Everybody falls along that continuum somewhere, and in order for a product to penetrate the majority market, it has to meet criteria related to usefulness: Does it do what you say it's going to do? And, perceived ease of use. If you have a great product but it's not easy to use, it's not going to make it into the mainstream, and we could list examples of products like that in our own industry.

In the case of the AQ rechargeable products, we have a product that is going to go well beyond the early-adopter segment and into the majority market, because we've eliminated all of the issues: we've got top-notch performance, and there's nothing out there that's easier to use. Again, you never have to think about a battery.

SMAKA: Thanks Jerry. It was great to catch up.

YANZ: Thanks, Carolyn.

About Hansaton

In our 50 years as a European leader in hearing aid design, we've learned a few things about what it means to listen. It's how we deliver more of what you want. It's how we provide the best available technology and the best possible value. And we do it simply. Great products. Transparent pricing. Extraordinary service. We're listening. To learn more about Hansaton products email sales@hansaton-usa.com, call 888.984.7432 or visit www.hansaton-usa.com or the Hansaton web channel on AudiologyOnline.