Adjustments--My Processor and Envoy Medical

Five months ago, I discussed the WPA, a "work in progress".  Like the economic recovery, the work continues.  I had a June appointment to tweak the sound processor, the Envoy Esteem implant.  The technician I was to meet in Tampa advised she had to attend a surgery in Atlanta so we put it off.  I called the Envoy rep. in early August to reschedule but was advised there had been some changes.

I wrote about the Envoy Medical business plan on January 11 and 12, 2012 and a possible IPO.  Apparently that plan was not working.  I was informed that I will no longer set my adjustment appointments through Envoy but through my physician.  Apparently the Spearmans are out and a new executive team is in place.  I and all other patients received a letter from Barb Cederberg, the new President of Envoy Medical advising of the business model change and clearly written by the legal team.  The letter advised that the surgeon and audiologist will now handle all followup and long term issues.

I was contacted a day later by Dr. Marzo's office in Chicago that they would be doing adjustments and made an appointment for Monday, August 27.  We sold our home in Chicagoland in early August but my wife was flying up that weekend for our youngest daughter's wedding shower so I booked a flight for Sunday August 26 so we could fly back together after my appointment.  Hey, what's another $500.  I stopped by the RNC Convention to check out doings before flying north as I was afflicted with a political virus in 1952 when I was glued to the Taft/Eisenhower battle for the nomination. I was a political science major and ran for state office in Ohio in 1972 and have always been involved even to this day serving on my Town Board, serving on the Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee and active on some local campaigns.

I digress as I tend to do but Judy and I headed down to Dr. Marzo's office and met with the audiologist who has been involved with all of his Envoy Esteem patients and has 19 Envy Esteem post-FDA study patients.  She had been up to the Minnesota headquarters that weekend for training and meetings and was very encouraged with the change.  The medical device industry can choose to market their product to the public or through physicians.  Apparently their marketing to the public choice was not as effective as they expected.  I believe I will have have more confidence in the surgeon's audiologist who has been trained on the Envy Esteem sound processor than the technicians hired and traind by the company.

She did an hour and a half of tests and listened carefully to my concerns.  I was getting volume but having word recognition issues in normal settings.  In restaurants and parties, there was reduction of noise when I reset the device but it also reduced the sound of the people I was listening to.  There was just no sound separation in any setting.  Adjustments were made to the programs and Dr. Marzo reviewed this and checked out the surgery and answered a few questions and we determined we had done all that we can for this visit.

Sounds are a lttle better but hearing will never be optimum.  I had the occasion to attend the Hearing Loss Association of America Convention in Providence in June and spent a morning listening to four research otologists from Johns Hopkins and learned about neuron damage and why such damage causes the loss of the ability to process and separate sounds.  All sound is noise for me and I have to keep trying to discriminate the best that I can.

I will continue to review the business plan and, in fact, gave some tips to the MedCity News reporter who works the medical device beat.  He was unaware of the changes at Envoy and he is digging in and had interviews scheduled with Barb Cederberg and some patients,  I am anxious to see what he finds--we can only hope the investors with deep pockets stay with this.