The News-Gazette out of Urbana-Champaign, Illinois is reporting that a local company Mimosa Acoustics, Inc. has received FDA approval “to market a device that can identify hearing problems related to the middle ear.” The device, currently in prototype stage, offers a non-invasive method to characterize middle ear transduction via acoustic power assessment.
From the article:
The device, which determines how much acoustic energy is reflected and absorbed in the middle ear, had been used only for research purposes prior to FDA approval.
Now Mimosa’s president, Pat Jeng, and her husband, Jont Allen, hope it becomes a standard in helping hospitals and clinics analyze hearing problems…
“Ultimately, every hospital should have it,” said Allen, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Illinois. “When it’s properly designed and priced, it should be in every pediatrician’s office.”
When newborn babies get hearing tests, one of the biggest difficulties is distinguishing major hearing problems from minor disorders, such as blockage in the ear canal that may disappear in days.
Allen said that for every 1,000 infants screened, two or three have major problems and 50 to 100 have minor disorders such as blockages.
The problem is, all those babies will fail the current screening test, causing many parents to fear unnecessarily that their child has a major hearing problem.
Mimosa’s new device can distinguish between major and minor problems and help eliminate the high number of “false positives” in the screening, he said. It’s a quick, objective test that’s not uncomfortable, he added.
Our CEO readers interested in available new technologies, already FDA approved no less, should note that Mrs. Pat Jeng is not sure what to do with the device:
Should she sell the product to another company, distribute it herself or license the technology?
Let her know: whisper in her ear.
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