South Africa’s HearX Set To Usher In A ‘Lifetime Of Music’ With dbTrack
A partnership between HearX and Listen Longer promises to bring digital solutions for prevention, detection, and intervention in hearing health care to the fore. “The shared vision is to make hearing safe for everyone, to prolong healthy hearing and positively change healthy hearing behavior. Together they are working to provide ‘dbTrack’ which is set to be a groundbreaking solution.”
To this end, both HearX and Listen longer launched their in-ear tracking app. HearX has already made its mark in South Africa by introducing an app that detects an early hearing loss in under 3-minutes. With backing from the Gauteng Province and clinical validation from the University of Pretoria, HearX went on to partner with The American Academy of Audiology.
Building strong relationships with governing bodies as well as international partners has given the South African startup a good foundation to be a leading voice when it comes to offering hearing solutions. Currently, 1.1 billion youth are at risk of developing noise-induced hearing loss due to unsafe listening. With hearing loss among teenagers rising from 3.5% to 5.3% between 1994 and 2006, and for the same age group, listening to music through headphones has increased to 75%.
According to the World Health Organisation, loud sound is the single biggest cause of preventable hearing loss. One in six adults has a hearing loss that causes difficulties interacting in social situations and one in five adolescents in the United States is already experiencing hearing loss.
‘dbTrack’ is intended to be the latest hardware and software technology for monitoring and tracking listening behavior of individuals in their ear canal. It consists of a monitoring device to track and measure sound exposure in the ear canal and indicates when a predetermined level of exposure has been reached. The mobile application promotes healthy listening and guides individuals on safe listening time when listening to music.
