NUH 0.00% 8.1¢ nuheara limited

Ann: Update to Govt Contract- Re-categorisation of Hearables, page-264

  1. 18 Posts.
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    Hm

    Spot on: "The Status Quo is about to be seriously challenged.Its inevitable". The sector is ripe for change. The technology is ready. It has to happen.

    The world needs Nuheara to help stimulate the inevitable moment. Nuheara needs to be in the first wave of serious devices that proves it can be done properly.

    The UK Department of Health and NHS England (its commissioning authority) would love to see hearing care coming out of the NHS, to a self-care setting. The same will hold true in most other countries with state-provided hearing health. This is where Nuheara-type devices can work.
    https://www.england.nhs.uk/category/self-care/

    NHS England are part succeeding with AQPs (based on the model for state-funded glasses), but the quality of outcomes is debated and it still involves a costly audiologist. The NHS clinicians of course want to protect their profession and evidence against (the NHS is a service provider to NHS England and is in many areas fraught with self-interest). The self-care option must build a body of credible evidence before it can happen, in state-funded public health.

    I maintain my opinion that Nuheara will not find a place inside the NHS, primarily due to conservatism and cost. The NHS is also largely controlled by the big 5. The big 5 have infiltrated the BAA/ASG, which defines the NHS service specification and evaluates new products for acceptance. The chair of the BAA is a Starkey employee. The vice-chair is Boots, which of course is owned by Sonova. The BAA is in strategic alliance with the IDA Institute, an independent organisation promoting consultative selling and is 100% sponsored by Oticon. In my humble view, Nuheara is up against it on all fronts with the NHS and no amount of Aussie spirit is going to make it happen.
    https://www.baaudiology.org/about/board/#.XKCzkiLTW9c

    Fortunately for Nuheara it does not need the NHS, if it could just find the right alternative channel. Forget Puretone.

    If the cost is affordable and the quality is trusted, then people would prefer to self-serve outside the public health system. If we can help it, none of us like becoming labelled as a public health case and going through its privacy-intrusive process. People take pride in self-managing.

    In summary I believe NHS England could be ripe for bypassing the NHS and instead award state reimbursement for patients self-referring to a DTC provider..... but only once the DTC model is proven to deliver.

    Interestingly, Oticon press focus in the run up to last week's AAA was on their implantable business and the establishment of a new Philips branded business unit for targeting current non-customer (could be read as a hint of DTC). It kind of reflects a dilution in focus on traditional hearing aids provision. Use translate:
    https://medwatch.dk/Medico___Rehab/article11283099.ece
    https://medwatch.dk/Medico___Rehab/article11283228.ece

    The chair of the board at GN is openly contemplating whether to join OTC, risking great conflict with its customers. I am sure the article will have generated a backlash from GN's big customers, such as Amplifon.
    https://medwatch.dk/Medico___Rehab/article11266731.ece

    The big 5 model is very entrenched and they will find it difficult, if not impossible, to adapt quickly enough. The moment the big 5 start a serious refocusing they will release hundreds of capable hearing aid engineers, who knows how to make good DTC devices. New start-ups will follow.

 
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