Whisper, San Francisco, has announced that Don Schum, PhD, will join Whisper’s leadership team as Head of Audiology after over 30 years in the hearing care industry. According to the company, he will play a key role in driving Whisper’s clinical strategy with the Whisper Hearing System, a learning hearing aid that gets better over time.
“Don brings a wealth of clinical and industry experience to Whisper,” said Whisper President and Co-founder Andrew Song. “We are thrilled that Don will be part of our leadership team, as the depth he brings will allow us to better serve hearing care professionals and consumers.”
“Whisper’s AI technology and approach to hearing care is bold, and something completely new in the hearing care industry,” said Dr Schum. “The Whisper team has impressed me at being singularly dedicated to bringing the best brainpower and talent to solving the most challenging problems faced by those with hearing loss. I am thrilled at the opportunity to join this exciting team and build something new.”
Dr Schum has over 30 years of experience in hearing care, most recently as the Vice President of Audiology for Oticon USA—a role he held for over 20 years. He brings significant expertise in research, clinical audiology, product commercialization, and audiology support and sales. He joins a team that is made up of experts from across artificial intelligence, hearing care, hardware, and software from Google to Apple.
Last week, Whisper announced its first upgrade to its learning hearing aid. Launched in October of last year, the Whisper Hearing System is made up of three components: 1) a set of receiver-in-the-canal (RIC) hearing aids; 2) the “Whisper Brain” which is a small separate device that runs an AI-driven Sound Separation Engine to optimize sound in real-time and enables connectivity to iPhones, and 3) the Whisper app interface for consumers. Because the system includes the Brain, it reportedly features enhanced processing power and computational abilities, as well as easy upgrading over the lifetime of the device. Whisper uses a subscription-based payment model for consumers, so the product upgrades can be made frequently without replacing the hardware each time. It is the first new major hearing aid brand launched specifically for the professional dispensing market in over 15 years.
For more information, visit: https://whisper.ai
