The growth of the Internet has fostered the convergence of telephone, cable and satellite and has created an environment that focuses on providing innovative and proprietary technology catering to specialized and niche market segments.
Today, there are in excess of 175 million Internet users in North America and 350+ million worldwide. This growth, combined with technological advances in computing, ever widening bandwidth along with the development compression technology, has fostered the development of the
e-telehealth industry – which is the use of communication technology to deliver real-time healthcare services over long or short distances.
Recent studies have found that consumer demand for healthcare content has already reached incredible levels, with 50% of today's Internet users accessing the Internet for health related information. The response to this demand has fostered the development of eHealth portals that are modeled on a content/information basis and are attracting 20+ million unique visitors per month and are actively searching for eHealth applications to strengthen their revenue base.
A study by The Pew Internet & American Life Project,
The Online Healthcare Revolution , illustrates the Internet's influence on eHealth.
Read more (PDF Document)
Industry prospects *
The world hearing-aid market today is estimated at 5.5 million units sold and 4 billion dollars. The present growth is approx. 6% a year in volume and 9% in value.
The size of the world market is considerably smaller than its potential. We know that 10% of the industrialized countries population needs a hearing-aid and that in 70% of cases two appliances are needed for each hypoacusis sufferer.
Potential and actual hearing-aid market volumes
Market
|
Population
(millions)
|
Hypoacusis sufferers
(millions)
(1) |
Total potential demand
(millions)
(2) |
Annual potential demand
(3) |
Present annual market
(4) |
Penetration
(5)
|
| USA |
275 |
27,5 |
46,8 |
9,4 |
1,9 |
21% |
| Canada |
30 |
3,0 |
5,1 |
1,0 |
0,15 |
15% |
| Total Western Europe
|
420 |
42,0 |
71,4 |
14,3 |
2,1 |
15% |
| Japan |
128 |
12,8 |
21,8 |
4,4 |
0,4 |
9% |
| Australia |
22 |
2,2 |
3,7 |
0,7 |
0,2 |
24% |
| Total |
875 |
87,5 |
148,8 |
29,8 |
4,7 |
16% |
(1) 10% population should wear hearing-aids.
(2) 70% should wear 2 hearing-aid.
(3) Re-buy occurs every 5 years.
(4) Year 2000 Amplifon Estimate, Western countries.
(5) Penetration = present market/potential market. |
Considering only Europe and the United States, the present market is 6 times smaller than its potential.
Market growth factors and forecasts
According to sector studies the hearing-aid market will continue to grow in the next years. The main growth factor is certainly the demographic factor: the growing elderly population, combined with a change in social habits and consumption tied to old age will considerably increase the main target of the hearing-aid market.
Furthermore, the change in buying habits and the introduction of digital technology will bring about higher market penetration, which will be ensured by the following factors:
- better informed clients more aware of the benefits deriving from medical treatments;
- older clients wishing to live a full and longer life, and on average with greater financial possibilities;
- more advertising and clearer information on hearing-aids;
- fewer prejudices towards the hearing problem and its possible solutions;
- constant improvement in technologies and bigger patient satisfaction.
* Reference from Amplifon website - Hearing and market
About Hearing Aids and Devices
The hearing aid was invented almost a century ago. It was a simple electric device comprised of a receiver, an amplifier, a battery and a microphone. It was designed to pick up sound waves, amplify them and direct them towards the auditory canal. These first devices were cumbersome, nonselective and thus, irritating for the user as it amplified background noise as much as it did conversation and meaningful sound.
It is important to note that for the vast majority of people suffering from hearing loss only have trouble hearing sounds at certain frequencies, which tend to be the higher frequencies such as women's voices.
In the mid-1980s, hearing aids emerged that amplified sounds at different frequencies by different amounts. This allowed the hearing aid to more effectively shape the sound to amplify only those frequencies in which there was hearing loss. However, one of the shortcomings of these devices were their inability to distinguish between soft, barely audible sounds and loud sounds. This often resulted in wearers constantly adjusting the volume control to try and hear what they were missing or turning down the volume when loud sounds were unpleasantly amplified.
By the late 1980s, multi-band wide dynamic range compression was introduced into hearing aids. This technology enabled the hearing aid to automatically adjust the output of individual frequency bands based on the input level to those bands. This meant that the hearing aid would automatically adjust loud sounds downwards and soft sounds upwards resulting in a much more pleasant and effective result and an improved ability to recognize speech from the previous generation of devices.
In the mid to late 90s digital hearing aids made their first appearance. Essentially, these devices featured advanced circuitry that had much more sophisticated sound processing algorithms. Much like computers, these hearing aids continue to get more powerful, smarter and smaller with each successive generation. New improvements such as feedback suppression (the annoying squeal that older hearing aids suffered from), and digital noise reduction began allowing the user to effectively use these devices in a wider range of environments and with a greater degree of comfort.
Today's digital hearing aids have come a tremendously long way in terms of their performance and comfort for the user.
