The following article is from the Monday, October 20, 2008 issue of the Albuquerque Journal

Hearing Is Believing While pricey

By Rick Nathanson
Journal Staff Writer

Michael Finnegan was an emperor in “The King and I,” a snooty Professor Higgins in “My Fair Lady,” King Arthur in “Camelot” and a barbaric barber in “Sweeney Todd.”
The 65-year-old Albuquerque physician, who began performing in local musical theater in 1992, has some high-frequency hearing loss and wears hearing aids. Because the type of aids he wore until recently could pop out during a performance, Finnegan simply took the devices off while on stage.
He is now playing the role of high-tech consumer. Finnegan is among a small group of New Mexicans to be fitted with Lyric — the first FDA-approved extended wear, disposable hearing aid.
Made by InSound Medical of Newark, Calif., Lyric fits entirely in the ear canal, a mere 4 millimeters from the eardrum, making it all but invisible. And according to users, it provides amazing fidelity.
Lyric remains in the ears around the clock so people immediately hear upon waking up in the morning. They can shower with it and exercise without worrying that sweat will loosen it or short out the electronics, says Susan Wichard, Insound’s vice president of marketing.
Lyric reduces hearing aid wind noise during outdoor activities, and it allows unimpeded use of the telephone, or headphones and earbuds for listening to music.
Users can even swim with Lyric, although diving to a depth of more than 3 feet isn’t recommended because the pressure might cause the hearing aid to shift position, Wichard says.
About eight years ago Finnegan began to notice that he could no longer hear the television clearly. Conversation with his wife also became more difficult, and the pastor at his church was delivering sermons that sounded garbled.
A simple test revealed he had some high-frequency hearing loss, making it difficult to discriminate words spoken within that range. He was fitted with digital programmable hearing aids that sat in the ear canal openings.
“They would sometimes pop out when I chewed or moved my jawbone, and sometimes they’d pop out in the course of normal animated conversation,” he says.
The hearing aids also gave off an annoying feedback squeal if anything came too close to them, forcing him to remove one so he could press a telephone to his ear for a phone conversation.
The aids did improve his hearing, Finnegan says. They were also expensive, more than $5,000 for a pair. And then there was the issue of vanity. Although the devices were small, they were visible. Nobody ever commented on them, but psychologically, he says, the hearing aids were an uncomfortable reminder that he was getting older.
He found a possible solution to his hearing dilemma in a newspaper advertisement about Lyric. Finnegan decided to investigate.
Now available
The device is slowly being introduced into the market at 50 distribution points around the country. Wichard says she expects it to be available at 500 outlets by the end of 2009.
Lyric is available in New Mexico only at Albuquerque Hearing Associates, where audiologist Carol Clifford had been monitoring patients participating in a controlled study of Lyric users. Finnegan wasn’t among that group, who were supplied with Lyric hearing aids at no cost during the study period that ended in mid-September.
“People who have tried them overwhelmingly love the devices,” she says. “Unfortunately, not everybody is a candidate to wear one.”
Even though Lyric comes in four sizes, “it only fits about 60 percent of people because their ear canals are either not long enough or not wide enough,” she says.
Rather than buy the Lyric hearing aids, people sign up for a one-year subscription. In Albuquerque that costs $3,000 for a pair, but ranges nationally from $2,900 to $3,600, Clifford says.
The device is inserted into the ear canal by an authorized audiologist or physician, who then uses a remote control programmer to adjust such parameters as low and high pitch, according to the wearer’s preference.
Lyric wearers also get a “Soundlync” adjustment tool, which is a short magnetic wand they hold up to the hearing-impaired ear, or ears, to adjust the sound level or to turn the Lyric off.
Batteries last 90 to 120 days, at which time the wearer simply visits the audiologist or physician, who removes the old Lyric, determines that the ear canal is clean and healthy, and inserts and adjusts the new one. A one-year subscription includes up to 10 replacement Lyric hearing aids per ear, and the cost of all office visits, Clifford says.
Finnegan’s preliminary verdict on Lyric is positive. “So far I’m liking them very much,” he says. “It took a week to get used to how they feel in my ear, but now I hardly notice them, and the sound quality seems to be pretty natural.”
As with other hearing aids, the downside of Lyric is it amplifies the wearer’s own voice, “so you think you’re talking louder than others, but you’re really not,” he says.
The other downside is the yearly subscription price. “For me, I have the money to spend so it’s not as much of a sacrifice as it might be for others, but I felt the expense was worth the convenience. If Lyric continues to perform as well for me as it does now, then I’d have to say this is the wave of the future.”
And there are plenty of people who may eventually body surf that wave.
Across the ages
Hearing loss ranging from mild to severe affects about 30 million Americans, Clifford says. “It generally begins when people are in their 40s and becomes noticeable in their 50s. One out of three people in their 70s has discernible and significant hearing loss that impacts communication and quality of life.”
Among her patients is 22-year-old Samuel Grant, a paramedic who has worn hearing aids in both ears since he was 12. He had been part of a Lyric study group since 2005.
His first hearing aids were the behind-the-ear kind, which left him feeling like he was “talking in a tunnel,” he says. Grant later switched to the type that fit into the ear canal opening, but these “were like wearing ear plugs.” Both left him unable to accurately hear his own voice, and both were visible, “so I felt people were always staring at me.”
They also made it difficult to perform his job as a paramedic. “I couldn’t use a stethoscope, so I had to take them out, and that automatically diminished my hearing capacity,” plus there was the inconvenience of having to take off and put on additional pairs of Latex gloves.
“Lyric is great,” says Grant. “I love them. This is definitely a leap in technology. The quality and clarity of the sound is better and more natural.”
Another self-described “devoted Lyric user” is 84-year-old Vivian Boyle. “It’s a new kind of life for me,” she says. “You can sleep with it, shower with it, bathe with it. I just can’t say enough good stuff. It is absolutely wonderful.”
Boyle, who is active with the League of Women Voters and as a fundraiser for the University of New Mexico economics department, has been wearing Lyric hearing aids for six months. Her son and her daughter, she says, told her she didn’t seem as “reclusive” since wearing the new hearing devices. Boyle says that’s because Lyric makes it easier for her to differentiate words and speakers and therefore to join in conversations.
“I’m going to go to my grave with my Lyric hearing aids,” she says.