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Boothless Audiometry is Revolutionizing Hearing Testing
The Real-World Impact of WAHTS and Edare’s Role in Bringing It Forward
Access to hearing care remains one of the most overlooked global health challenges. In many communities—particularly rural regions, schools, and underserved populations—hearing assessments are limited not by need, but by logistics. Traditional hearing tests require specialized soundproof booths, trained clinicians, and dedicated facilities. For many populations, those requirements create barriers that delay diagnosis and treatment.
The Wireless Audiometric Hearing Test System (WAHTS) was developed to change that reality.
Today, WAHTS is enabling hearing screening in classrooms, community centers, and remote regions—places where traditional audiology services have historically been difficult or impossible to deliver. Behind that real-world impact is a collaborative product development journey involving research innovation, engineering transition, and commercialization support.
A Technology Designed for Access
WAHTS is a portable, boothless audiometric system designed to perform hearing assessments without the need for traditional soundproof environments.
Unlike traditional systems that test one individual at a time, WAHTS enables simultaneous testing of up to seven individuals, significantly increasing efficiency while reducing logistical complexity.
This portability makes hearing assessments possible in locations such as: schools conducting group screenings, rural or remote communities, community health events, field-based public health programs, and locations without access to permanent clinical facilities.
By removing the physical constraints of sound booths, WAHTS helps extend hearing care into environments where access has historically been limited.
Bridging the Gap Between Innovation and Implementation
The origins of WAHTS trace back to early platform development by Creare, where the foundational technology was initially created. From there, the technology transitioned into a new phase—one that required transforming a research platform into a deployable, scalable product. This is where Edare played a key role.
As a product development partner, Edare supported the transition of the WAHTS platform from early-stage technology into a robust system ready for field deployment and commercialization. This phase typically includes refining system architecture, improving usability, validating performance, and preparing the product for manufacturing and real-world use.
Edare brought the WAHTS platform to a point of demonstrating commercial viability and proved that the product could address a large market. In 2024, however, the company needed investment capital to take the business to another level of commercial growth. Additionally, the company needed to add audiology-focused team members in order to best serve the company. With these capital- and human resource needs, Edare decided to spin off WAHTS into its own company – WAHTS Hearing, LLC – in order to continue to advance the technology and accelerate adoption to a wider customer base.
Edare oversaw this multi-stage journey – from research innovation to deployed technology – to ensure that this innovative technology could translate into an impactful product, improving the hearing health of individuals across the globe.
A Platform for the Future of Hearing Health
Boothless audiometry has evolved significantly since its early emergence in the early 2000s. As mobile technologies, wireless communication, and digital health tools continue to advance, systems like WAHTS are helping redefine what hearing care delivery can look like.
The ability to perform accurate testing in flexible environments supports a broader shift toward decentralized healthcare—bringing services directly to the people who need them.
Future developments may include expanded telehealth integration, enhanced automated diagnostics, improved data connectivity for population health analysis, and broader deployment in global health initiatives.
Each advancement builds on the same core idea: hearing care should be accessible regardless of geography or infrastructure.
Enabling Innovation Through Partnership
The development of WAHTS demonstrates how successful products often emerge from collaborative ecosystems rather than single organizations.
- Creare established the foundational platform technology.
- Edare supported the transition from research system to field-ready product.
- WAHTS Hearing, LLC advanced commercialization and continued product development.
Each phase required different expertise, but all contributed to the same outcome: a practical tool that improves access to hearing care.
This progression reflects a broader truth in product development—impact happens when innovation moves beyond the lab and into the hands of users.
From Engineering to Impact
Technologies like WAHTS remind us that engineering success is not defined solely by technical achievement, but by real-world outcomes.
Every portable hearing test administered in a classroom, community center, or rural clinic represents more than a completed diagnostic procedure—it represents access gained, barriers removed, and opportunities created.
By supporting the transition from early-stage technology to deployable product, Edare helped enable that impact. The result is not just a device, but a system that helps clinicians reach more people, diagnose hearing loss earlier, and deliver care where it is needed most.
And that is where innovation truly matters—not in the prototype, but in the lives it touches.
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