Taiwan’s hearing aid manufacturers have big ambitions as population ages

Описание: As Taiwan’s society ages, medical support for hearing difficulties is a growing industry. Almost 40% of folks over the age of 65 have some hearing issues, which in Taiwan means well over 1 million people. The manufacturers of Taiwan’s hearing aids are also actively expanding into international markets. We spoke to doctors, hearing aid fitting specialists, and manufacturers, to find out how the supply chain is getting optimized.

Taiwan is an aging society. Four in 10 adults over the age of 65 have hearing problems, often caused by degenerative conditions or diseases. That’s about 1.2 million people in Taiwan.

Chen Chin-kuo
Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Linkou
As the population of older people grows, on average 5-6% of the population have got what we call hearing difficulties. Because they can’t hear well, they gradually go out and socialize less often, and when that external stimulation is reduced, then their brain activity reduces, so that also leads to dementia.

Over the long-term, using a hearing aid to listen to music or watch TV shows can help reduce aging for people with hearing difficulties. Each year, the population of people with hearing issues grows, and demand is soaring for devices such as hearing aids and cochlear implants.

A child enters the hearing booth and puts on earphones, ready to begin their hearing test.

The test-taker presses a button when they hear a sound. Their responses are picked up by this precision instrument, and used to select an appropriate hearing aid to meet their needs.

Hearing aid fitting specialist
We trim the hearing aid, based on the ear shape of the test-taker’s ears, and according to their size preferences. In principle, we have what we call the half-ear shape, the whole-ear shape, and the deep-ear shape.

Modeling material is used to make a copy of the ear canal. It’s sent to a manufacturer to create this tiny hearing aid. The precision technology inside – including a core chip, and low-latency Bluetooth functionality – is all made by the Taiwan hearing aid national team.

Wu Shao-hui
Hearing aid manufacturer
We want to integrate the power of our supply chain in Taiwan, like integrating the power of our sealing providers and semiconductor factories. We’re banding together to fight and help our Taiwanese manufacturers get out into the world, and be competitive against these big foreign manufacturers. The proportion of our domestic orders has gradually grown to almost 50%, and the rest is 30% Japan and 20% European orders.

Taiwan’s hearing aid manufacturers have big ambitions to expand into the global medical device industry.