Witnessing the moment someone can hear clearly is powerful. It’s a moment I’ve been fortunate to experience thousands of times during my more than 60 years of work with Starkey. This moment of disbelief, joy and gratitude doesn’t happen without personalized care.

A personalized exam by a hearing healthcare professional to determine exactly how someone’s hearing loss needs to be treated is crucial. A young adult suffering from noise-induced hearing loss may have a very different treatment journey than someone whose hearing is declining due to age. While both situations are important to address before the onset of more serious health concerns, it’s clear there is no one-size-fits-all approach to treating hearing health and hearing treatment is vital to maintaining our overall well-being.

Early in my career, I determined everyone deserves personal care and solutions that suit their unique needs. Starkey adopted that principle, and it’s been our focus for more than 50 years. To this day, I strongly believe you should always do what is best for the patient. When I established the company in 1967, my work was solely dedicated to creating and repairing ear molds for custom products. Soon, the needs of customers grew beyond ear molds and presented a greater demand for custom hearing aid solutions.

By the 1970s, Starkey had put a focus in our industry on custom care and solutions. Starkey introduced the first custom in-the-ear (ITE) products to market, which soon became the bulk of what we were producing. I was so confident in the quality of our products and service that Starkey became the first in the hearing industry to implement a 90-day risk-free trial. When we launched our first hearing aid with this return policy, we saw a reaction from the industry like we’d never seen before. It was clear that custom solutions that put the patient first would become the future of hearing health.

In 1983, President Ronald Reagan shared that he was fit with a Starkey hearing aid. It was monumental for the industry and encouraged widespread acceptance of hearing aids as this was the first time hearing health had been addressed on an international platform. For decades, Starkey continued pursuing hearing aid solutions that could be personalized to an individual’s needs.

In 2019, we took our focus for personalized care a step further with the world’s first custom hearing aid with lithium rechargeable batteries. Livio Edge AI equips users with the most advanced technology and highest-quality sound, building on the advancements of Healthable features in the groundbreaking Livio AI. We continue to reinvent the hearing aid and have redefined the role of this technology to not only help people hear better, but to help them live better.

With the 2021 introduction of Starkey’s Evolv AI, an entire product family of customizable solutions, including the world’s smallest wireless 2.4 GHz completely-in-canal (CIC) hearing aid, Starkey continues to be the world leader in custom hearing devices. From the moment I entered this industry in 1961, I knew a network of dedicated individuals could make an impact on the world for good by providing hearing health resources to help as many people as possible. Through passionate service and a focus on innovating with the patient in mind, the #StarkeyFamily has done just that.