Today April 7th marks the World Health Day. A favorable date to recognize those medical advances that have represented a revolution to cure, prevent or minimize different pathologies that affect people and their quality of life. An exercise that has been carried out by French National Institute of Health and Medical Research and that, by popular vote, has placed the earphones among the ten most important inventions for people’s health.
According to data collected by the French institute, one in five Europeans consider hearing aids to be one of the five most important inventions in medicine. These data have been made public coinciding with the 50th anniversary of this institution, which reveals that organ transplant It is the medical advance most recognized by those surveyedleading the ranking with 70% support.
The podium of this list is completed with the X-rays and the gene therapy, with 65 and 51% of “votes” respectively. Respondents’ responses ranked hearing aids tenth ahead of medical advances such as artificial insemination, antidepressants and cloning.
Hearing aids are undoubtedly the most used hearing solution in Spain and the world. These devices, which amplify sound and stimulate the auditory system, began to be used in 1899. At first they were bulky, especially because of their battery, and very not portable. The great revolution came in 1947 with the invention of the transitor, which favored the reduction and portability of these hearing aids.
The second great revolution in the hearing aid sector came in the 80s with its digitalization, although it took a decade to perfect the first models. However, this change allowed this solution to help even people with profound hearing loss.
Currently, digital hearing aids are increasingly smaller and more powerful, in addition to having greater autonomy. The variety of models It also makes it easier to find the best solution for each person.