Oticon created new hearing-care possibilities that change lives more than ever before

From November 3rd to 7th, 2025, the Traditional Annual Oticon Partner Seminar took place in Cape Town, South Africa.

Company Co-founders and Supervisory Board Members, Dr. Olena Sokolova and Dr. Yuri Sokolov, represented the Hearing Rehabilitation Centre AURORA®, the exclusive distributor of Oticon in Ukraine, at the Seminar.

The Seminar was incredibly rich with information, events, and impressions.

Jakob Kjærgaard, Export Director of Demant Group, opened the Seminar and emphasized that it was being held under the slogan IMAGINE — imagine new opportunities for hearing care that change lives more than ever before! Jakob highlighted the immense importance of helping people with hearing loss on their journey to obtaining hearing solutions — thorough hearing assessment, towards timely and optimal hearing aid fitting, as early as possible after the hearing loss onset — to ensure the best quality of life with the hearing they have.

Henrik Brandborg, Senior Vice President of Demant Group, spoke about the strategic directions of hearing technology development within the Group and their application in hearing solutions. Demant Group focuses on three main business areas: Hearing Care via the global network of hearing care clinics, Diagnostics, and hearing instruments. The emphasis is placed on technological innovation, with extensive application of Artificial Intelligence (AI), user experience, and employee satisfaction at Demant. The global network of over 4,500 hearing care clinics, including the Audika networks in many countries, provides high-quality care using optimally fit hearing aids. This involves the use of standardized audiological equipment and methods, the effectiveness of which is confirmed by evidence-based medicine.

Oticon introduced two new hearing aid models on the Sirius platform that utilize Artificial Intelligence (AI) — Oticon Zeal™ and Oticon Inten™ miniBTE R.

Sharon da Conteca, Director of Demant South Africa, spoke about hearing care in this country with a population of 60 million. 35% of the population receives hearing aids through the national healthcare system, 31% through private insurance coverage, and the rest purchase hearing aids at their own expense.

Susanna Løve, MA, AuD, Director of Audiology at Oticon, and Maureen Doti Tomasula, MA, AuD, Oticon International Trainer, presented the new Oticon Zeal™.

Oticon Zeal™ is an innovative In-the-Ear (ITE) hearing aid. It shifts the paradigm of hearing fitting for both users and hearing care professionals. It overcomes barriers to the first step on the path to hearing rehabilitation.

The main differences between Oticon Zeal™ and conventional ITE styles are that it does not require the manufacturing of a custom shell from an ear impression, as it features a standard body while employing all the latest technologies.

In some cases, patients do not wish to wait for the manufacturing of a custom ITE and postpone their hearing fitting indefinitely. In other cases, the patient desires an in-the-ear solution but wants full smartphone connectivity and the best noise reduction — technologies that were previously available only in Behind-the-Ear (BTE) HAs, like Oticon Intent, or in Full Shell ITE styles, which are very noticeable in the ear and therefore undesirable for those concerned with cosmetics. Thus, until now, patients had to compromise, choosing between cosmetics, HA size, and functionality.

Oticon Zeal™ completely removes the need for compromise — for the first time, it enables the combination of small size, cosmetic appeal, and speed of fitting with all of today’s technological achievements.

Oticon Zeal™ is an almost invisible in-the-ear hearing aid of a new style, which Oticon calls NXT. It is the first to combine all the most modern AI-based digital sound-processing technologies, a second-generation Deep Neural Network (DNN), with binaural interaction between the right and left hearing instruments. It also features full wireless connectivity via Bluetooth LE (Bluetooth Low Energy), enabled by a unique external antenna.

The external antenna acts not only as a transmitter and receiver but also allows Oticon Zeal™ to fit securely in the ear. This is particularly important for users who move actively, such as players of football, volleyball, basketball, hockey, or those engaged in physical activities and sports. For such users, Oticon Zeal™ significantly reduces the risk of losing the device during physical activity, or damage, for example, by a ball.

Oticon Zeal™ is also the first among in-the-ear hearing instruments to be fully ready for the latest Auracast technology.

Auracast is a new international Bluetooth standard that allows an unlimited number of hearing instruments, located in a specific area, to receive sounds broadcast from a special transmitter. Examples include large auditoriums, concert halls, train stations, airports, etc. Auracast works similarly to how telecoils and FM systems work, but at a higher technological level. Until now, readiness for Auracast technology was available only in the best behind-the-ear hearing aids of the latest generations, which are understandably much larger than in-the-ear instruments.

Thus, Zeal™ 1 is the first flagship-level in-the-ear HA, analogous to the Oticon Intent™ 1 already well-known in Ukraine.

The uniqueness of Oticon Zeal™ also lies in the fact that the fitting is “instant” — it does not require custom shell manufacturing, so it can be adjusted and fit on the same day the patient undergoes the assessment. This allows the patient to receive hearing care faster. This is of particular importance in cases where the patient has to travel long distances to a hearing clinic, or attend multiple appointments, which can be a barrier to fitting.

Another group of users for whom Oticon Zeal™ may be the best solution is those who wear eye glasses. When using hearing aids of BTE, miniRITE, or RITE styles, the temples of the eye-glass frame touch the instrument, which, aside from simple inconvenience, is picked up by the HA microphone as an unpleasant clicking sound. Oticon Zeal™, like other in-the-ear HAs, completely eliminates this problem and makes the simultaneous use of HAs and glasses seamless.

The Oticon Zeal™ housing is fully biocompatible and hypoallergenic. Its full encapsulation (enclosed design) ensures the highest IP68 level of protection against water and dust, and completely prevents the risk of corrosion to the battery, which is rechargeable.

For the hearing care professional, Oticon Zeal™ is also a major step forward. It is the first to ensure the highest precision of acoustic properties and sound quality — with the least variability between individual hearing instruments, which is inherent in custom-made in-the-ear instruments that can only be accurately tuned using real-ear measurements (REM). Thanks to this, Oticon Zeal™ enables highly precise initial fitting using the Oticon Genie software.

Oticon Intent™ miniBTE R is also very good news. It is the world’s smallest powerful miniBTE, combining two fitting levels for hearing losses of up to 85 and 105 dB. It features four technological levels, analogous to the already familiar Oticon Intent™, and opens new opportunities for applying the latest technology to a larger number of patients, particularly many children.

The ability to configure for different hearing loss levels (85 and 105 dB) makes Oticon Intent™ miniBTE R uniquely suitable for cases of fluctuating hearing loss, for example, in Meniere’s disease.

Søren Boelsmand outlined the modern Oticon HA Portfolio. It includes: Oticon Intent in four levels (Intent 1 being the flagship), Oticon Jet PX, and Oticon Jet. The in-the-ear portfolio includes Oticon Zeal 1 (flagship), Oticon Own S (mid-level), and Oticon Jet (basic). The pediatric portfolio includes Oticon Play PX, Oticon Play, and Oticon Exceed. Hearing aids Oticon More, Oticon Real, Oticon Opn S, Oticon Zircon, Oticon Ruby, and Oticon Jet in-the-ear devices continue to be produced for now, but their production will be gradually phased out during 2026.

Jeppe Christensen, PhD, a scientist at Demant Group, reported on the latest research and developments regarding the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in hearing technologies. AI technologies embodied in Oticon HAs significantly improve speech perception and communication, including in difficult acoustic conditions.

James Hart, PhD, Lead Scientist at the Oticon Eriksholm Research Centre, provided a highly informative overview of the latest research regarding the interdependence of hearing loss and dementia (the decline of human cognitive abilities).

Dementia can be linked to various conditions, particularly vascular disorders. It has not yet been unequivocally established that hearing loss causes dementia, or that hearing fitting reduces its risk. However, numerous studies demonstrate a high correlation between dementia and hearing loss, as well as between hearing fitting performed quickly after the detection of hearing loss and a reduction in the risk of dementia. Nevertheless, it should be noted that published research on the results of hearing fitting in relation to dementia was conducted on users who received devices mainly through government provision programs—meaning, typically, inexpensive hearing aids—without taking into account the technological level of the instruments used, binaural vs. monaural fitting, or the optimality of the fitting. These aspects remain open for further research.

Another unstudied aspect is the impact of “hidden” hearing loss on dementia risk. “Hidden” refers to hearing loss where the tonal audiogram is within the age norm, but the person understands speech in background noise significantly worse than other people of the same age. Precisely because of the possibility of “hidden” hearing loss, the audiometric “speech-in-noise test” — determining speech intelligibility in noise at certain speech-to-noise ratios of sound pressure levels — is gaining importance. In some countries, for example, in France, such a test has already become mandatory for hearing fitting. Moreover, impaired speech intelligibility in noise is a basis for the prescription and coverage of hearing aids by state and private insurance for patients with a normal tonal audiogram.

Morten Kristensen spoke thoroughly about the application of the “Patient Journey” or “User Journey” methodology. The goal of this methodology is to help people with hearing loss receive hearing care sooner. First of all, it helps to realize the hearing problem and seek professional help. Then, it helps the patient make a timely decision to receive hearing care/fitting, specifically — and this is very important — binaural fitting (on both ears). And subsequently, it helps the user maintain the quality of the fitting and life with hearing aids through regular checks of hearing status, and verification of hearing aids and their correspondence to the hearing status, as well as the timely replacement of hearing aids with more modern ones.

Oticon distributors from Hong Kong, Lithuania, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Mexico, and Morocco shared their experiences with applying the “User Journey” methodology, while Morten Kristensen shared experience from the Audika hearing care network of the Demant Group.

Also interesting was the overview of the global hearing aid market, which, once again, clearly demonstrated Oticon’s global leadership in hearing solutions.

Direct communication with fellow hearing care professionals from participating countries and, as always, with Oticon Team, was extremely valuable.

Tetiana Bogdanovych, MA, Aurora® General Director, expressed delight at the new Oticon technologies and emphasized: “The Center is already working to soon provide the opportunity to use the latest Oticon developments to improve the quality of life for children and adults in Ukraine.”

Olena Sokolova, MD, PhD, Aurora® co-founder and Supervisory Board Member

Yuri Sokolov, MSc, PhD, MBA, Aurora® co-founder and Supervisory Board Chair

November 19, 2025

Contacts:

43 Demiivska St, Kyiv 03040 Ukraine ∙ Tel.: +38 (044) 501-03-51 ∙ www.aurora.ua ∙ aurora@aurora.ua

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