Community Hearing Aid, first reality check in Brazil

In October 2024, I travelled through the states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to collect country-specific information on hearing aid provision and explore opportunities for cooperation for our project idea of a Community Hearing Aid.

I spoke with doctors and scientists from the institutions: São Carlos School of Engineering (University of São Paulo), the training centre of the Hospital Oswaldo Cruz on Avenida Paulista (German Hospital), the ENT clinic of the Hospital das Clínicas at the Medical Faculty of the University of São Paulo, the otorhinolaryngology research department at the Medical Faculty of the University of São Paulo, the Paula Souza Center with nationwide technical research facilities and the Foundation for the Advancement of Research in the State of São Paulo (FAPESP).

I also attended the German-Brazilian Engineers' Day organised by VDI Brazil and Green Rio 24, an international event in Rio de Janeiro for the presentation and discussion of ecological and sustainable solutions.

My research has shown that there are hundreds of thousands of free hearing aids in Brazil every year that have to be procured by the Brazilian government. These hearing aids are fitted in approximately 120 ear, nose and throat centres in the country. However, specific agreements between the Brazilian government and hearing aid manufacturers prevent the sustainable distribution of hearing aids. Furthermore, there are only a few manufacturers that produce hearing aids in the Global South. This leads to a situation in which technological dependency on the Global North remains. In addition, research in rural areas shows that awareness of hearing health and opportunities and access to hearing aids is weak at best, if it exists at all.

The aim of the Community Hearing Aid is to compensate for hearing loss in an efficient and cost-effective way. It also seeks to involve as many people as possible in its production and distribution by fostering a small-scale, bottom-up economy around the product. The long-term goal is to establish a new assistive technology that can be used in countries of the global south, in line with the principles of sustainable development and a recent WHO guideline (1).

(1) https://www.who.int/news/item/01-03-2024-who-issues-guidance-to-improve-access-to-hearing-care-in-low--and-middle-income-settings