Two Pi: SelfFit technology links to tomorrow’s hearing healthcare

Two Pi GmbH announces that SelfFit, an innovative Mobile Medical Application for hearing aid fitting, has successfully entered the clinical trial stage.

Developed with the support of the audiological division of the Amsterdam Medical Center (AMC), SelfFit combines the characterization of the individual hearing loss through the hearing aid with an advanced First-Fit protocol and a well-structured fine-tuning process using realistic sound samples. This substantial innovation has a potential for broadening hearing healthcare beyond the frontiers of the traditional markets.

Adjusting the recent growth figures for demographic and geographic developments, it is apparent that the penetration of the world hearing aid market is actually shrinking. While the hearing healthcare industry relies on demographic and geographic developments to stimulate current sluggish growth rate, the conventional hearing healthcare concept is substantially incompatible with the reality in the emerging markets. The lack of audiology infrastructure in populous developing countries is the main obstacle for sufficient distribution of hearing aids.

The accelerated emergence of Mobile Medical Applications clearly indicates that smartphone based solutions have a vast potential for innovations in the medical product market. AliveCor iPhone ECG, iBGStar’s glucose monitor and Sanadu’s Scout are mobile medical applications that have already been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. With FDA approval these novel medical apps are confirmed as being substantially equivalent to prior medical devices.

“During the entire development of SelfFit we have been very cautious concerning effectiveness and safety of the fitting procedure,” said Tarik Zukic, managing director of Two Pi. “We need to provide the evidence that for mild to moderate hearing losses SelfFit is as safe and effective as traditional hearing devices. This is a huge step forward in improving hearing healthcare in the emerging markets.”

In the emerging markets, providing suitable audiology services is hindered by non-existing network of brick-and-mortar shops and lack of trained audiologists. If audiology services are offered through a mobile medical app that combines diagnostics and fitting, the cost for hearing aid distribution and service will be reduced significantly and the lack of audiology infrastructure will be no longer restrictive for distribution. As in case of telephone and banking in India and Africa, the technological leap forward will efficiently bridge the infrastructure gap. SelfFit is developed to deliver similar benefits.

About Two Pi
Two Pi is an innovative technology company developing advanced intellectual property for the hearing healthcare, personal communications and professional communications markets. Two Pi's algorithm catalogue results from a streamlined scientific program carried out with university partners.

About AMC
The Academic Medical Center (AMC) is one of the foremost research institutions in the Netherlands, as well as one of its largest (teaching) hospitals. Over 7000 employees provide integrated patient care, do fundamental and clinical scientific research, and educate students in Medicine and Medical Informatics.

For further information visit www.two-pi.com

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