SOMERSET, NJ May 25 – Oticon, Inc. gathered more than 1600 hearing care professionals from across the US and 56 countries in Orlando, May 21-22, for the launch of Oticon Opn™, the newest BrainHearing™ solution from Oticon. The two-day knowledge sharing event challenged participants to push the boundaries of traditional technology with game-changing innovations that open a world of sound for people with hearing loss and a new direction into the future of hearing care.
“Opn represents a paradigm shift in hearing care that is a dramatic step up in signal processing to provide the brain the best possible information needed to successfully understand speech with less effort and more recall,” said Oticon President Peer Lauritsen. “With Opn, we take the promise of BrainHearing™ technology into a future that is here today, empowering hearing care practitioners to improve hearing and quality of life for more patients than ever before.”
Throughout the weekend, participants engaged with distinguished speakers and subject experts as they explored the new technologies and audiology that allow Opn to provide better speech understanding while also reducing listening effort and increasing recall. Soren Nielsen, President of Oticon A/S, asked participants to consider the question, “Can we do better” as a starting point for understanding the vision that drove the development of a hearing solution that “delivers a more coherent and intelligible sound experience where speech understanding isn’t limited by noise reduction.”
Stephen Attenborough, Commercial Director of Virgin Galactic, and Inventor Byron Reese, founder and CEO of Knowingly, each provided unique perspectives on the transformative power of new technologies like Opn to effect powerful change, growth and new outcomes.
Professor Anu Sharma, PhD of the University of Colorado, Boulder and Denver and University of Texas at Dallas, shared the latest research on the role of cortical reallocation in hearing loss and the implication for early intervention and appropriate treatment.
Oticon’s Donald Schum, PhD, Thomas Behrens, PhD and Sheena Oliver, AuD provided insight into the technology and audiology advances in Opn that allow sound to reach the brain precisely and accurately, making it easier on the brain by reducing cognitive load and freeing cognitive resources for better recall. Vice President of Sales Jim Kothe outlined the results of the recent Opn patient field trial and Senior Marketing Manager Nancy Palmere presented the new consumer-tested marketing creatives for Opn.
Jens Rosenstand, Director of Product Management for Oticon, looked at the way that Opn’s advanced technology makes it possible, for the first time, for people with hearing loss to take advantage of a growing number of If This Then That (IFTTT) solutions that make everyday life easier.
A panel featuring Finn Möhring, Vice President, R&D, Oticon A/S, Peter Petersen, Program Manager, Connectivity Program and Nicolas Le Goff, Senior Research Audiologist, discussed Oticon’s unprecedented commitment of people and resources to building digital platforms from the ground up. More than 50 Oticon scientists, engineers and audiologists spent more than five years designing and building the new Oticon Opn.
For more information on Oticon, Oticon Opn and all Oticon BrainHearing™ solutions visit www.oticon.com or the Oticon Expo Page on AudiologyOnline.
