Predictions for 2031: Matthieu Del Rio: A hearing profession that must embrace demand to transcend the senses

Such a panorama would be a welcome challenge for hearing care professionals, this French academic argues. But the HCP is here to stay.

Matthieu Del Rio, President of CNA (Collège National d’Audioprothèse), which governs audiology studies and training in France; member of SFA (Société Française d’Audiologie).

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines health as «a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, which is not just the absence of disease or infirmity». In line with this logic, and within ten years, it is safe to bet that technology will occupy a preponderant place in an area of medicine that could evolve from the field of compensation towards much greater orientation on performance.
Audiology is a field where these transformations could be particularly present: biotechnologies, artificial intelligence, neurosciences… So many avenues that could bring questions related to hearing into a form of transhumanism, pushing current hearing capacities far beyond what we currently know.
Hearing care professionals as we know them today may have to adapt to a demand that no longer comes just from hearing impaired patients or patients with hearing pathologies, but also to a demand from people wishing to transcend their senses and cognitive abilities in the broad sense. Regardless, their role as a healthcare professional expert in hearing management will remain essential for the fitting and monitoring of these new technologies.

Source: Audiology Worldnews EUHA special 2021