< Program

Technology Update Session

Session 2C
The Clinical Benefits of Infinio Sphere
Kevin Seitz-Paquette, AuD, Sonova 

Untreated hearing loss has a number of consequences beyond a reduction in audibility, and that impact the overall quality of life for the patient. The measure of success for hearing care and for new technologies is the degree to which a patient’s holistic well-being is improved. In many cases, however, the clinical and technical data supporting new hearing technologies shows improved speech intelligibility, sound quality, or audibility, and only rarely demonstrates how the patient improves across the full range of benefit dimensions. Phonak Audeo Infinio Sphere, introduced in 2024, was the first commercially available hearing aid to utilize a deep neural network (DNN) to directly extract speech from background noise (known as Spheric Speech Clarity, or SSC). Sphere’s new approach to improving speech clarity in noise enables it to perform significantly better than its predecessor technologies, especially in complex listening situations. This is due, in part, to the ability for SSC to provide roughly the same SNR improvement for multiple speech sources regardless of their azimuthal angle relative to the listener. Since its launch, the benefits of Infinio Sphere have been thoroughly evaluated across a number of clinical studies. The evidence gathered to date shows that Sphere and SSC improve not only speech understanding in noise, but also reduce listening effort, reduce fatigue, improve performance on cognitive tasks, and improve social well-being and overall quality of life. Collectively, these studies demonstrate that Sphere’s benefit is not limited to any one specific dimension (e.g., speech intelligibility). By improving how hearing aids perform in challenging situations, Sphere eases listening and supports an active social life.In this session, results from these clinical studies will be summarized, along with a discussion presenting a holistic view of the benefit of hearing care. Foundational concepts related to how SSC is applied to extract speech from noise will also be presented.

Kevin Seitz-Paquette is the Sr Director of Audiologic Insights at Sonova. In this role, he is responsible for the dissemination and translation of clinical research findings related to new and existing Sonova technologies. Prior to this role, he served as director of the Phonak Audiology Research Center. He holds an AuD from Northwestern University and serves on the membership committee of the American Auditory Society.