2023 in review and more big things coming next year

2023 has been a busy year for us at eargym filled with growth, including becoming B Corp Certified, a semi-finalist for the Longitude Prize, and working with several companies on corporate pilots. In this month’s edition, learn about our major achievements and progress in 2023, and exciting developments to look forward to for 2024, along with our Christmas Gift Guide for some great hearing-related present ideas.?

2023 highlights

Product changes

Our UK innovation grant funding has allowed us to be user-led, with our feedback panel and product testers helping us make the improvements we need. We launched two exciting hearing training games this year - Odd One Out (now the 2nd most played game) and Petal Picker, and our users have given some very positive feedback so far. Along with the release, there have also been changes to our onboarding experience incorporating the eargym Hearing Health Check, as well as implementing a guest mode to allow new users to try out more of the app before signing up. eargym’s scientifically validated Speech in Noise hearing loss screener arrived this year, and the testing and training history feature was also released, allowing users to see their historical scores and results, encouraging and visualising their improvement over time.?

Do you have something you’d like to see added to our app in 2024? Send us your suggestions here.

Key numbers

eargym has delivered over 270,000 hearing checks, which is an incredible achievement. Increasing the accessibility of hearing checks for people and businesses is at the heart of eargym’s mission, so we are proud to have been able to achieve such a milestone.?

Our co-founder Andy Shanks’ LinkedIn Live events, and corporate lunch and learn webinars have also been extremely popular this year, with over 2000 people registering for his informative talks about hearing health in the workplace.?

Press & pilots

eargym has had a fantastic amount of press coverage this year, including The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Sun, and many more. It’s been great to see awareness spread about the importance of hearing health, unsafe listening practices amongst the young, and the link between hearing loss and dementia. Read all of eargym’s press features here.

We’re also pleased to have worked with several employers, to learn how we can best support employee hearing health. Our pilots experienced fantastic uptake and results, here are some of the highlights:

“We were one of the first companies to pilot eargym and it went down really well with the team. I think there?s real potential to have a positive impact on people?s long-term well-being as well as benefits in the workplace”. - Nigel Moore, CFO at SPF, London Financial Provider

eargym has also worked with the Alzheimer’s Society to raise awareness of the importance of taking care of your hearing. We ran a company-wide webinar for them, and it proved hugely successful, with the team delivering the Alzheimer’s Society’s most successful lunch and learn session with over 300 attendees.?

If you think your business would be interested in discussing a potential pilot of eargym, you can book a call with our co-founder Andy Shanks here.

Research Progress

Over the last year, the research team has been busy delivering our existing research grants and paving the way for future product improvements. At the end of June, eargym was selected as a semi-finalist for the prestigious Longitude Prize on Dementia and we are currently communicating with dementia groups across the country to find participants for this project.?

eargym’s UK Research and Innovation project has also made good progress, with frequent user testing with a panel of 12 individuals with varying levels of hearing loss, to enhance the eargym experience, including usability testing with the upcoming new game Petal Picker and usability testing with eargym’s new training progress check.?

Additionally, we have recently welcomed aboard two excellent postdoctoral researchers as part of the Zinc Innovation Fellowship. Dr Mark Crook-Rumsey is an expert in cognitive science and will help develop eargym’s cognitive monitoring capabilities. Dr Aaron Kandola has a wealth of experience in the digital health space and will help show the impact of eargym for companies and society as a whole.

During 2023, we are very proud that eargym has also been the recipient of several awards:

B Corp

This year eargym became a certified B Corp ??. This means we were verified by B Corp UK to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.? Becoming certified is the culmination of a year-long evidence-based process, and we’re looking forward to setting improvement goals to work towards before re-certification in 2026. This will be alongside eargym working to create meaningful partnerships with other B Corps who share a drive to create a positive impact on the world.

Our free online training course - Unlocking the secrets of hearing loss

Did you know that 50% of people with hearing loss feel concerned about their employer's attitude to hearing loss and say it has stopped them from being open about their hearing difficulties?

And that 57% of people affected by hearing loss feel that they don’t get the support they need, because their employers do not have the knowledge to help?

In 2023 we launched our free course on hearing loss, which is designed to help those working with people suffering from hearing loss. In the course, you will learn how to spot hearing loss in others, help them prevent further loss, and manage life better with hearing loss.?

If you'd like to train your team on how to spot or support people with hearing loss get in touch.

What’s new in 2024

There are some very exciting new app changes we’re working on for next year.?

• The Progress Test- This helps eargym users more accurately track improvements made to their hearing, and help show the impact of hearing training.?
• Cognitive Health Testing- We’re exploring the capabilities of the eargym app to provide a cognitive health screening test.
• Enhanced Hearing Tests- eargym’s hearing tests are also getting a range of improvements to enhance the user experience.
• Hearing Health Report- This will be a comprehensive downloadable hearing health report that can be taken to a GP to form a referral to treatment.?

Upcoming Live Event - 11:00AM - 12:30 PM Thursday January 25th 2024? - Why Hearing Health should be part of your benefits/health strategy

Discover how hearing health can help your company gain a competitive advantage. Are you an employer, e-commerce seller, or healthcare provider looking for an edge in 2024??

Sign up for our live LinkedIn webinar to discover why hearing health deserves a prominent place in your business strategy.

We will be covering:

• How hearing health care can help you stand out in a competitive job market
• The measurable ROI associated with including hearing health in your benefits
• Our tailored hearing care packages for employers, resellers, and partners

Sign up here today

Christmas gift guide

It’s the season for giving and we scoured the internet to find a wide range of hearing-related gifts that we think are perfect for you or your loved ones. Ranging from affordable earplugs to customisable hearing-aid cases, there’s something for everyone.

Find the full list here.

Thank you for your support and for following eargym's journey. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas.

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