At EUHA 2026: Building towards accessible hearing screening for India
Around 23 million babies are born in India each year, and an estimated 1,15,000 could have hearing loss. Our conversation with Cornelius Müller of NXP Semiconductors at EUHA 2026 in Hanover.
“Affordability and accessibility must be part of the design from the beginning.”
Around 23 million babies are born in India each year. Using an estimated prevalence of 1 in 200, approximately 1,15,000 could have hearing loss. Every one deserves an opportunity for early screening.
This need shaped our conversation with Cornelius Müller, FAE Wearables & Personal Health at NXP Semiconductors, at the 70th International Congress of Hearing Aid Acousticians (EUHA 2026), held from 14–16 October 2026 in Hanover, Germany.
We shared SonicHear's vision of developing an affordable newborn hearing-screening solution designed around the realities of healthcare delivery in India. Our discussion focused on frugal medical innovation: practical, clinically relevant technology that addresses cost and access while keeping quality central.
The challenge goes beyond developing a device. Families also need timely screening, understandable results and reliable follow-up. One Indian study cited in our research reported hearing-loss confirmation at approximately 25 months of age, compared with the benchmark of diagnosis by 3 months. Although this is not a national average, it illustrates the delays some families experience.
What stood out to us was Cornelius's understanding of the need for frugal innovation for markets like India. His feedback reinforced our confidence in the problem we are working to address and the importance of designing for real-world constraints.
As we continue developing our MVP, exchanges like this help us question our assumptions and refine our approach. We remain committed to learning from industry experts, healthcare professionals and the families we hope to serve. We thank Cornelius for his time and thoughtful perspectives.
Our mission is simple. Our ambition is bold: work with partners to help screen 20 million newborns by 2030.
This is our ambition, not an outcome already achieved. Reaching it will require continued development, clinical evaluation and partnerships that bring screening closer to families.
Early screening shouldn't be a privilege. It should be within every family's reach.
Data notes: Annual births are rounded from the approximately 23.2 million estimate for 2024 cited in UN World Population Prospects 2024. The 1,15,000 figure is calculated using 23 million births × an estimated prevalence of 1 in 200, rather than a registered case count. The diagnosis-age finding comes from one Indian study, discussed in Jacob et al., "Challenges of Universal Newborn Hearing Screening in a Developing Country, a Double-Edged Sword." The 20 million target is SonicHear's partnership-dependent ambition for 2030.