Artificial Intelligence in Hearing Aids feat. Dr. Achin Bhowmik | Chief Technology Officer at Starkey

About the Hearing Matters Podcast

The Hearing Matters Podcast discusses hearing technology (more commonly known as hearing aids), best practices, and a growing national epidemic of hearing loss. The show is hosted by father and son, Dr. Gregory Delfino, Au.D., CCC-A, and Blaise Delfino, MS, HIS. They treat patients with hearing loss at Audiology Services in Bethlehem and Nazareth, PA.

In this episode, Blaise Delfino speaks with Dr. Achin Bhowmik, chief technology officer at Starkey Hearing Industries.  

Engineering Background

Dr. Bhowmik earned a doctorate in engineering and served as vice president and general manager of the perceptual computing group at Intel Corporation. When Starkey’s president Bill Austin asked Dr. Bhowmik if he wanted to create technology that help make people’s lives healthier, he jumped at the chance. He moved to Starkey.

Computers that Understand the World

At Intel, Dr. Bhowmik’s job was to create machines and computers that recognize a person’s face, his/her voice, the surrounding environment, people, and sounds and make sense of it all. Improving people’s hearing is and always will be the number one priority at Starkey. Improving people’s hearing is and always will be the number one priority at Starkey. He brough that technology and his expertise to Starkey to help people understand each other better and connect with the world. Starkey is tapping into the most advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to do a better job of amplifying sound. The newest hearing technology from Starkey makes 55 million adjustments every hour. The instruments decipher the cacophony of sound waves and turn them into what’s meaningful to the wearer. It also determines what should and shouldn’t be amplified. 

Keeping People Safe and Healthy

In addition to providing the best, most natural hearing possible, these new hearing aids act as a health monitor. Starkey’s newest hearing aids are the only ones that sense when a person falls and subsequently alerts his/her loved ones. It also tracks the wearer’s physical activity and his/her social engagement. Both of these activities help keep a person healthy and cognitive.  

A World of Information

The new hearing instruments can also translate between 27 languages and acts as a personal assistant. The wearer can ask the hearing aids questions and get answers spoken directly into his/her ears. It can also be set to remind the wearer that it’s time to take medication or other important tasks. Starkey is transforming hearing aids into multifunctional devices.

 Ears are the New Wrists 

With the increased awareness of the benefits of physical activity, many people are buying wrist watches that calculate the number of steps taken in a day. The new Starkey hearing instruments also tally the number of steps but there are no false positives. A person wearing a watch often moves his/her arm around and additional steps that weren’t really taken are added to the total.

 The Value of Hearing Healthcare Professionals

Dr. Bhowmik says getting OTC hearing aids is not wise. It takes a trained professional to properly fit hearing instruments. Even the patient’s facial expressions and rea

Transcript

Blaise Delfino: 0:06

You're tuned in to the Hearing Matters Podcast with Dr. Gregory Delfino, and Blaise Delfino of Audiology Services and Fader Plugs, the show that discusses hearing technology, best practices, and a growing national epidemic, hearing loss. On this episode, we would like to welcome the Chief Technology Officer at Starkey, Achin Bhowmik. Dr. Bhowmik, welcome to the show.

Dr. Achin Bhowmik: 0:32

Thank you, Blaise. It's a pleasure to talk to you and your audience.

Blaise Delfino: 0:36

Achin, I met you for the first time at one of these Starkey classes here on campus in Minnesota. And just to hear your why and to learn about your background and how you have positively influenced the computing world. Thank you so much for all that you do. Achin, before you joined the Starkey family. I believe Bill Austin asked you one question. Do you want to create technology that makes people live healthier lives. And it was at that moment, and I'm sure hours of conversations that you joined the Starkey family. Prior to working at Starkey, you served as vice president and general manager of the perceptual Computing Group at Intel Corporation, briefly share with us your incredibly successful career in the field of engineering and computer science.

Dr. Achin Bhowmik: 1:28

Thank you. So I literally grew up in Intel, which I joined in 2000, after finishing my doctoral degree in engineering, and I had the pleasure of working with the best and the brightest of engineers, researchers, managers, executives, who were literally creating the world of computing, as we know now, I have nothing but respect for that phase in life at Intel 80 to 90% of the computers were being powered by the technology that was getting created at Intel. Well, that said the last 10 years of my tenure there when I was the vice president and general manager for perceptual computing group. We started dabbling in an exciting area, and that is to enable machines and computers to sense and understand the world. Much like what humans do, you know, we we take our sensory perceptual aspects just for granted, we wake up in the morning, open our eyes. And this flash of light that enters our eyes enable us to see and understand what is it that we're seeing, recognizing the environment around us, people, animals, we hear sound, and then we make sense of it, you almost forget the signal. Because our brain basically translates that into content that we use to navigate in the world and understand things around us. The work at Intel was working on this cutting edge technologies, machine learning artificial intelligence, natural sensor devices, to enable these new wave of computers, whether it's phones or PCs that can recognize your face, or understand your voice commands, or cars that can drive by themselves, drones and robots that can navigate in the world. So my task was to enable machines to perceive the world better. So what Bill Austin offered me is the opportunity to use the same advanced cutting edge technologies, but instead of using them on machines, and hoping the machines would understand the world, how about, we use the technologies to help humans understand each other and connect with the world better. That was what did the trick for me, I decided to leave the comfort of an amazing, amazing company and the big team that had been there and come to healthcare, where I use technology to help people live better lives.

Blaise Delfino: 3:54

That definitely drives home Achin, your empathy, because you're using your talents to positively influence millions of individuals who present with hearing loss. So on behalf of all of those patients and the providers, thank you so much for that. You reported that for a long time, the hearing aid had one single function, and it was designed to amplify sound. But by tapping into sensors, artificial intelligence and machine learning. How has Starkey reinvented the hearing aid?

Dr. Achin Bhowmik: 4:27

Thank you. Great question. So I'm very passionate about this topic that the device that we call a hearing aid, it has a primary function to play and that is to help our patients hear better. That will always be the core function of it. It's job number one, as we call it, and we have ways to go in tapping into the most advanced machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to do a much better job at amplifying sound. The good old hearing aids would just amplify sound evolving are the devices that we just introduced, as this amazing cutting is machine learning technology that's doing 55 million adjustments every hour? Well, based on the sound around it, so it recognizes the sound, you know, the way I say it, it deciphers, the cacophony of sound waves into what's meaningful to me, that should be amplified, what should be noise to me and should not be amplified. So it already does an amazing job, but ways to go to make it even better. And then the multiple function that we can enable it to do we already do, if the hearing aids are already in my ear, they should become my health monitoring device, keep me safe, it should detect if I fell, send alert messages to my loved ones. And I was surprised that hearing aids did not do that when I joined this industry. Now we do and we are the only company whose hearing aids have that function. It tracks my physical activities. So it my older relative who's using these devices, or not being physically active, I as a caregiver with their permission, know that because Starkey hearing aids evolve AI is tracking those activities. We also have machine learning to track social engagement. If my mom withdraws socially, because she's not hearing well, and she withdraws into the corner of a room and does not interact with people. We know that's bad for our health, because that's probably indications of a spiraling downward degradation of cognitive functions, we don't want that to happen. So our hearing aids have this amazing ability now with machine learning to track the degree of social engagement, and to make the patients aware of it, and make the caregivers aware of it with the patient's permission. So in in this way is with fall detection. With physical activity tracking, with social engagement measurement with AI, these devices evolve AI already now playing a role that no other hitting it had done before, which is to go beyond its primary function of amplifying sound, and keeping us healthy. third aspect is to become conduit to the world of information. With the device in the year that's already connected to the cloud via the smartphone, we can now translate between 27 languages. And the device is used as your very own personal assistant where you can ask any question, get answer spoken into your year privately, and set it to remind you of your medication or other important tasks. So we already are transforming this hearing aids into your very own personal assistant.

Blaise Delfino: 7:24

Achin, prior to joining the Starkey family and I have so many questions following that the hearing aid it has a different function now. And you had said that you were surprised that hearing aids didn't already do that. Prior to joining the Starkey family, did you have any experience with a family member or friends who presented with hearing loss?

Unknown: 7:44

Actually, its only after I joined Starkey and got to know about hearing aids, I became aware of hearing aids being such a big problem because everyone I know started reaching out to me about some family member, you know, needing help with hearing. And there is not a day that goes by when one of my all contacts from, you know, people I used to work with before not reaching out to me about some of the relatives needing health. It is as you know, major problem half a billion people today live with disabling hearing loss, yes, we are living longer. So the number of people who can help with our technology is going to increase significantly. It keeps me and my team excited about you know, going back to the lab and developing better technology to help people heal even better, you know, help them with speech in noise. And then all these amazing technologies you're working on in keeping people safe. We're barely at the start of this very exciting phase of transformation of hearing aids into Multi Purpose multifunctional devices.

Blaise Delfino: 8:42

As a hearing care professional, I absolutely do believe that you are just getting started. And this is so exciting because you are going to help you and your team are going to help so many individuals on the road to better hearing. In a recent episode, we spoke with Dr. Archelle . And we discussed comorbidities linked to untreated hearing loss. Now with that said, what are some features because I believe you touched upon a few of them that Starkey's hearing instruments have that not only help patients hear better, but live better.

Dr. Achin Bhowmik: 9:13

Right. So we already have some of those features in so we know there is an Dr. Archelle Georgiou is one of the best in articulating these, that hearing is a health topic because it's got coincident comorbidities with so many other factors. People with hearing loss are at three times the risk of falling and hurting themselves three times because there is such a close proximity between the vestibular sensors and the cochlea. So the degradation of the hair cells in the cochlea are likely the same mechanism that leads to the degradation of the hair cells in the vestibular sensor. And as we get older, we develop sensorineural hearing loss. It's probably a telltale sign that we will be at risk of falling down as a result we got three times higher chances of falling. So the the fact that we now have machine learning technology implemented on the embedded sensors in the hearing is that we are the first ones to integrate this sensors that can accurately classify my gait balance. And then detect if I fell and send alert messages is already an example of how we are helping people live better lives will be on the heating function, and then keeping track of their physical activities. You know, there's such a strong results that show staying active, physically active, keeps your keeps you healthy, not just, you know, your biomechanics, but your cardiovascular issues. So our hearing aid are the best devices to do that because they are in your ear, and head is the best place to track your health parameters.

Blaise Delfino: 10:43

As Dr. Fabry says, the ears are the new wrists.

Dr. Achin Bhowmik: 10:47

Yes, it's I will I will modify that a little bit. And yes, please. So articulated in saying that ear is the new wrist and the rationale for this is there's so much excitement about wearable devices on your wrist for good reasons, it now is creating the awareness of the importance of physical activity. But that said, I only modification I'll make that his ear is not just a new wrist, but it's way better than the wrist. A lot of you know that because your wrist is flailing around and giving you false positives for steps you have not taken. And you will get a lot more spurious signals per fall, because you raise your hand is always, you know, it's a it's most for many reasons. On the other hand, that year is attached to it. Yeah, so you get a lot more accurate data.

Blaise Delfino: 11:37

Its not that flimsy. The majority of our patients when they come to us, they say, I struggled to hear, but I really struggle to understand speech in noisy situations, with Starkey's latest release of Evolve AI. How is this technology? Decreasing the patient's listening effort?And increasing their speech understanding?

Dr. Achin Bhowmik: 12:06

Yep. So thank you. That is the job number one, the hearing aids with all of the other amazing new functions you can add. It's called function. And I have any patient I talk with the customers I interact with, like yours. that's job number one, we have to help our patients understand speech in challenging listening environments. So what evolve AI has done and the feedback I'm getting for the last few weeks after people are getting fitted with these devices, just short of amazing Congratulation. Thank you very much. They're particularly calling out how the speech is clearer than ever before. You know, there's a gentleman, a patient who just, you know, I'm using his video to show off the perceptual experience is what matters at the end, not what we measure in the lab. Pretty much what he's saying is, the way his experience is with this device for understanding conversations. He would say it's like a water that's muddy and unclear, and crystal clear water. So you know, like that, saying that it cuts through the noise and amplify speech in a way that helps him understand speech way better than before. Underneath all this is the advances we've made in machine learning, AI and signal processing. And I mentioned this automatic adjustments 55 million times an hour, there is no way that I can do it manually, right. So for me, it's a billion adjustments every day. So this this Real Time Machine Learning Engine, the AI engine we have in the hearing aid is every few milliseconds, basically making adjustments and clarifying speech

Blaise Delfino: 13:38

Achin, untreated hearing loss is linked to cognitive decline or dementia of the Alzheimer's type. With that said, What can we expect from Starkey hearing that will assist these patients with working memory, short term memory and or overall memory recall?

Dr. Achin Bhowmik: 13:58

I think it goes back to your last question as he made it made the point about listening load, the cognitive load that goes into getting sound signals, understanding it processing it and more important making meaning of it. Yes, and if you're, if you're struggling to hear, but I should also say the cognitive neuroscience part of hearing, right for the longest time, the focus for hearing it had been just a year, you know, the degradation that has happened in your, in your inner and outer hair cells and how to compensate for that by amplifying sound. We forgot the auditory part, the auditory cortex. It's the combination of the year and the brain, which is how we hear. So now the cleaner signals we send to our brain, the easier it is for us to understand. And when we say it's easier to understand, that means I got a lot more cognitive facilities faculties available for attending to other things in life. Don't get hit by the bus or be aware of what's going on around you. If all of your attention is going into trying to understand that word, because you struggled to understand speech in noisy environment, that cognitive load is bad for you, because it's going to just tie you down into that one function. With this machine learning capabilities. When we send in clarified speech signals suppress noise, the evil via AI devices cut down the noise by an additional 40%. It's an amazing 95% reduction in noise in challenging listening situations. What that does is it allows the patient to more easily understand conversation in noisy environment

Blaise Delfino: 15:30

Achin, when we were speaking with Archelle, whenever we work with patients, because we always want to make data driven decisions. That is one of the many reasons why we conduct speech and noise testing. How can we appropriately fit a patient with the best technology for them if we don't know what their speech and noise scores are? Yeah. So for our patients, of course, the goal is to increase overall speech understanding and decrease listening effort. But we don't necessarily hear with our ears, we hear with our brain, and we live in a very noisy world. Yeah, so we've been implementing what is called the abbreviated profile of hearing a benefit. And we've been utilizing this outcome measurement, patients are able to see how they communicate without the hearing aids. And now after a couple of weeks wearing the hearing instruments, how they hear witness to hearing technology, and what we've seen with our best practices and being fit with the most appropriate hearing technology, the majority of our patients are experiencing a 50% increase of speech understanding in noisy situations, thanks to individuals like yourself, additional thought leaders in the industry that are providing the technology to help these individuals and these patients. Achin, you have to test these products. So you create your MVP or minimum viable product, right? How do you personally go about testing this incredible technology?

Dr. Achin Bhowmik: 16:57

Thank you. But I would first emphasize, what he just said, is profound in ways that, you know, hearing aids are differentiated from other consumer products that you're used to that you might just get in a mail and put in a year and you're good to go. But what he just described is the journey for that patient with hearing loss that must be taken with a hearing care professional like yourself, because what he said about rehabilitation about easing people into the probably multiple weeks of optimizations of the devices experiences, that is only possible when the hearing impaired patient is seen by a hearing care professional like yourself, which is why Starkey brand and solid, all of us were so passionate about making sure the value of healthcare professionals in this experience between the technology and the patient is highlighted is kept and proliferated. So that's it. Yeah. So I put myself in the category of a tester as well, even though I do not have hearing loss, yet tested multiple times. But I am the most prolific user of my technology. As you can see, I go around with my evolve AI receiver in Kindle devices, I got my amazing, rechargeable custom devices that are perfectly fit for my ear canals. So unlike all of the consumer electronic devices, which you put in your ear for an hour, and you feel the pain, right? Doesn't feel good. So this evolving, rechargeable custom hearing is a perfectly made for me. And I'm comfortable wearing it all day. And then I got this pretty amazing, we were just admiring this tiny IICs that are also part of our family. For those of us that don't want to see you're using and amplifying device. They're completely invisible. I'm using them and testing them all the time. And I can tell you even without hearing loss, they helped me hear better. And is the part that my friends get surprised first, but when I explained to them, and then they'll tell me, when can I get my devices? Because that's crazy. My Bluetooth headsets, right? So when I'm getting a phone call or streaming an audio book into my year, I'm doing that with all day battery life for my evil VR devices in my year. I don't have to fidget around and find a Bluetooth headset. Next with its binaural noise reduction and directional capabilities and speech enhancement. Even someone like me who have who has no hearing loss. I hear better in a loud, noisy restaurant environment with my evolving devices in my ear than not because it's sending me directional signal is doing binaural noise reduction. It's better than normal hearing. So what I like to say is that, for the longest time hearing aids were you know, the bring up the disability to the point that we are now able, I think this modern technology represented by evolve AI. It makes us superhuman. It takes us beyond what a normal human capabilities for hearing.

Blaise Delfino: 19:50

I love that evolve AI turning you into a superhuman. Achin, I admire you so much when you first came into the studio today and you brought your Technology. And you just started looking at your IIC or invisible in the canal device. And just your passion shines through this was unsolicited, wow, how much computer power we actually fit into this tiny device and how it helps so many patients,

Dr. Achin Bhowmik: 20:17

Right. And just think about it, like people say, you know, I come from Intel, so I must be doing something on the computing side of the devices. What we're doing with evolve AI is already miraculous in terms of just how much raw computing power machine learning capabilities, we're able to squeeze into this tiny form factors. And then what gets me excited is I cannot tell your audience right now, hopefully in the next time when that we talk, sometime in the future, is amazing advances we have in our lab that will make today's hearing aids look like toys

Blaise Delfino: 20:45

Achin, hearing technology is often only as effective as the professional fine tuning the hearing instruments, real ear measurement, which is essential and should be conducted at every hearing aid fitting, and annually. If there's been a change in hearing loss, how important is it for patients to visit an audiologist or hearing care professional when being fit with hearing technology, specifically, evolve AI.

Dr. Achin Bhowmik: 21:15

Also, it's extremely important. We of course, have the pride in the technology that we developed. But in order to make them suitable and extract the highest value that a patient can for the purpose of hearing better, they must go visit a hearing care professional and feed the right way and rehabilitate take the time to get acclimatized. Visit the hearing care professionals frequently along the journey to go from not hearing well to hearing the best that they can. It's not about putting in a year and hitting a button. But it's the interaction that you have with the patient when they're in you in your practice your conversations with them. And as you're talking to them, you look at their face and look at their expressions, and the adjustments that you're making. The touch that you have that builds on this amazing experience that he talked about how you have been exposed to the world of hearing from seven years old. And all those expertise, the learnings and the passion that you're bringing in helping that person hear better, it can never be replaced, just using technology that they will receive in mail put in the year and they'll be good to go. Hearing aids are different from other consumer electronic devices that we're used to.

Blaise Delfino: 22:27

You're tuned into the Hearing Matters Podcast with Dr. Gregory Delfino, and Blaise Delfino of Audiology Services and Fader Plugs. On this episode we had Dr. Achin Bhowmik, Chief Technology Officer at Starkey. Until next time, hear lifes story