Interview with Peter Blamey Ph.D, Chief Technology Officer, Dynamic Hearing
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Topic: Circuitry Advances: ADRO, Cochlear Implants and Hearing Aids
Beck: Good Morning Peter. Thanks for joining me today. If you don't mind, I'd like to start with your professional background. Please tell me a little about where you earned your doctorate?
Blamey: Good morning Doug. My first college degree was in physics at the Australian National University. I spent two years on business training with an insurance company, and then completed my doctorate in physics at Monash University. Finally, in 1979, I started working with Graeme Clark's team at the University of Melbourne.
Beck: 1979 was fairly early on in the world of cochlear implants. How many patients did they have in Melbourne at that time?
Blamey: There was only one patient when I started. I was working on the psychoacoustics and speech processing for that person. It was rather challenging as we needed a room full of equipment just to control one implant. Later I became involved with language development for children wearing cochlear implants and hearing aids. I was at the University of Melbourne for some 25 years, until we founded Dynamic Hearing.
Beck: And to help clarify...I believe that many of the products and intellectual property developed at the university have been licensed to Cochlear Corporation for use in their cochlear implants...is that correct?
Blamey: Yes, that's right. It was a great opportunity for me to work with a multi-disciplinary research team, continually improving the technology to deliver improved sound quality to cochlear implant and hearing aid users. We worked on everything including surgery, biocompatibility, sound processing, the electrode array, electrophysiology, and clinical audiology. The outcomes of the University research are automatically and exclusively licensed to Cochlear in the field of cochlear implants.
Beck: And most recently, you've developed a sound processor that can be used in both cochlear implants and hearing aids?
Blamey: Yes, it's called "ADRO," which stands for adaptive dynamic range optimization. It's in use by Cochlear in the Sprint processor and now in the new Nucleus Freedom processor too and the Interton hearing aid called the "Bionic". The ADRO processor makes sure that sound is audible and comfortable for each electrode of the cochlear implant (CI) and for each frequency band within the hearing aid (HA). This ensures that the maximum amount of information is available from each device, in a compatible form.
Beck: So for example, if ADRO is in the left ear within a cochlear implant and ADRO is also in the right ear within a hearing aid, do the two work together? And further, how is this different from what has become somewhat common, wearing a CI on one ear and a HA on the other?
Blamey: They work together because the ADRO CI and HA are programmed to do the same thing at the same time. ADRO will soon be available from several HA manufacturers and those hearing aids will maximally complement the Nucleus Freedom cochlear implant.
Beck: So in other words, you're talking about a synergistic fitting between ADRO in the HA and the CI?
Blamey: Yes, that's correct. The fitting procedures for the ADRO CI and HA are already similar, and I would love to see them both fitted by the same audiologist in the same session, with the same software. Only then will we be treating both ears in a holistic way.
Beck: Very interesting...so when these two products are programmed together, the CI/HA combination provides maximal speech perception while using ADRO, more so than would be expected by combining a CI on one ear for high frequency perception with a HA on the other ear for low frequency perception?
Blamey: Exactly. Binaural and bimodal benefits have been demonstrated when both devices are audible and comfortable at the same time. The idea is that by maintaining a comfortable and consistent sound through the CI and the HA in tandem over a wide dynamic range, speech perception will be further enhanced.
Beck: Do you have outcomes or evidence-based studies that have validated this approach?
Blamey: There have been three published studies of ADRO in hearing aids and two in implants, all showing significant improvements in speech perception, comfort, and preferences over non-ADRO processing. There is a bimodal ADRO study in progress, and we hope to report the results later this year.
Beck: In your experience, can you tell me whether the two systems working together provide actual binaural cues for the patients?
Blamey: Yes, we believe they do. You get binaural summation of loudness, combined spectral and temporal cues, interaural masking, and patients report better ability to localize too. As you mentioned earlier, when using the two technologies without ADRO, the HA is often assigned to provide low frequency information and the CI's task is to deliver high frequency information. With ADRO, the goal is to increase the overlap of the two signals to maximize binaural cues. The outputs of the two devices are balanced and we're less oriented towards high versus low frequencies. Binaural bimodal hearing is of particular benefit in background noise.
Beck: Are there particular CI users that do better with ADRO?
Blamey: Not really, most seem to do better with ADRO than without. Everyone will benefit from better audibility for soft sounds and greater comfort for loud sounds. ADRO can also help with the enjoyment of music which often has different spectral content and greater dynamic range than speech. Most processors are optimized either for speech or for music, but ADRO adapts appropriately to both. It's a good all-rounder, a go-anywhere sound processor.
Beck: In some respects, ADRO sounds similar to wide dynamic range compression (WDRC) -- is that correct?
Blamey: Yes - in some respects it is similar. WDRC measures the average level of the sound and adjusts the gain every time the input changes. With ADRO, we measure a low level sound and make sure that it is audible; we measure a high level sound and make sure that it remains comfortable. Provided these conditions are satisfied in every frequency band or electrode, we do not change the gain. ADRO acts like a linear amplifier most of the time, and like a WDRC amplifier at other times. It also has built-in noise reduction, unlike WDRC.
Beck: I suspect this technology has application beyond HA and CIs?
Blamey: Yes, Dynamic Hearing is following up other exciting opportunites in cell phones, headsets and other markets where audio processing is required.
Beck: Thanks so much for your time this morning. I've enjoyed learning about ADRO and wish you continued success with the rollout of these advances.
Blamey: Thank you too, Doug. It's been a pleasure.
For more information on ADRO www.dynamichearing.com.au
For more information on Cochlear www.cochlear.com
Blamey: Good morning Doug. My first college degree was in physics at the Australian National University. I spent two years on business training with an insurance company, and then completed my doctorate in physics at Monash University. Finally, in 1979, I started working with Graeme Clark's team at the University of Melbourne.
Beck: 1979 was fairly early on in the world of cochlear implants. How many patients did they have in Melbourne at that time?Blamey: There was only one patient when I started. I was working on the psychoacoustics and speech processing for that person. It was rather challenging as we needed a room full of equipment just to control one implant. Later I became involved with language development for children wearing cochlear implants and hearing aids. I was at the University of Melbourne for some 25 years, until we founded Dynamic Hearing.
Beck: And to help clarify...I believe that many of the products and intellectual property developed at the university have been licensed to Cochlear Corporation for use in their cochlear implants...is that correct?
Blamey: Yes, that's right. It was a great opportunity for me to work with a multi-disciplinary research team, continually improving the technology to deliver improved sound quality to cochlear implant and hearing aid users. We worked on everything including surgery, biocompatibility, sound processing, the electrode array, electrophysiology, and clinical audiology. The outcomes of the University research are automatically and exclusively licensed to Cochlear in the field of cochlear implants.
Beck: And most recently, you've developed a sound processor that can be used in both cochlear implants and hearing aids?
Blamey: Yes, it's called "ADRO," which stands for adaptive dynamic range optimization. It's in use by Cochlear in the Sprint processor and now in the new Nucleus Freedom processor too and the Interton hearing aid called the "Bionic". The ADRO processor makes sure that sound is audible and comfortable for each electrode of the cochlear implant (CI) and for each frequency band within the hearing aid (HA). This ensures that the maximum amount of information is available from each device, in a compatible form.
Beck: So for example, if ADRO is in the left ear within a cochlear implant and ADRO is also in the right ear within a hearing aid, do the two work together? And further, how is this different from what has become somewhat common, wearing a CI on one ear and a HA on the other?
Blamey: They work together because the ADRO CI and HA are programmed to do the same thing at the same time. ADRO will soon be available from several HA manufacturers and those hearing aids will maximally complement the Nucleus Freedom cochlear implant.
Beck: So in other words, you're talking about a synergistic fitting between ADRO in the HA and the CI?
Blamey: Yes, that's correct. The fitting procedures for the ADRO CI and HA are already similar, and I would love to see them both fitted by the same audiologist in the same session, with the same software. Only then will we be treating both ears in a holistic way.
Beck: Very interesting...so when these two products are programmed together, the CI/HA combination provides maximal speech perception while using ADRO, more so than would be expected by combining a CI on one ear for high frequency perception with a HA on the other ear for low frequency perception?
Blamey: Exactly. Binaural and bimodal benefits have been demonstrated when both devices are audible and comfortable at the same time. The idea is that by maintaining a comfortable and consistent sound through the CI and the HA in tandem over a wide dynamic range, speech perception will be further enhanced.
Beck: Do you have outcomes or evidence-based studies that have validated this approach?
Blamey: There have been three published studies of ADRO in hearing aids and two in implants, all showing significant improvements in speech perception, comfort, and preferences over non-ADRO processing. There is a bimodal ADRO study in progress, and we hope to report the results later this year.
Beck: In your experience, can you tell me whether the two systems working together provide actual binaural cues for the patients?
Blamey: Yes, we believe they do. You get binaural summation of loudness, combined spectral and temporal cues, interaural masking, and patients report better ability to localize too. As you mentioned earlier, when using the two technologies without ADRO, the HA is often assigned to provide low frequency information and the CI's task is to deliver high frequency information. With ADRO, the goal is to increase the overlap of the two signals to maximize binaural cues. The outputs of the two devices are balanced and we're less oriented towards high versus low frequencies. Binaural bimodal hearing is of particular benefit in background noise.
Beck: Are there particular CI users that do better with ADRO?
Blamey: Not really, most seem to do better with ADRO than without. Everyone will benefit from better audibility for soft sounds and greater comfort for loud sounds. ADRO can also help with the enjoyment of music which often has different spectral content and greater dynamic range than speech. Most processors are optimized either for speech or for music, but ADRO adapts appropriately to both. It's a good all-rounder, a go-anywhere sound processor.
Beck: In some respects, ADRO sounds similar to wide dynamic range compression (WDRC) -- is that correct?
Blamey: Yes - in some respects it is similar. WDRC measures the average level of the sound and adjusts the gain every time the input changes. With ADRO, we measure a low level sound and make sure that it is audible; we measure a high level sound and make sure that it remains comfortable. Provided these conditions are satisfied in every frequency band or electrode, we do not change the gain. ADRO acts like a linear amplifier most of the time, and like a WDRC amplifier at other times. It also has built-in noise reduction, unlike WDRC.
Beck: I suspect this technology has application beyond HA and CIs?
Blamey: Yes, Dynamic Hearing is following up other exciting opportunites in cell phones, headsets and other markets where audio processing is required.
Beck: Thanks so much for your time this morning. I've enjoyed learning about ADRO and wish you continued success with the rollout of these advances.
Blamey: Thank you too, Doug. It's been a pleasure.
For more information on ADRO www.dynamichearing.com.au
For more information on Cochlear www.cochlear.com
