HearingTracker
Press release · Public health & policy← The news desk

✦ The Dispatch

Starkey’s Tani Austin Named a 2026 Herizon Award Honoree

A dispatch from Hearing Review — filed

Woman in white coat gives a high-five to a young girl wearing a hearing aid, flanked by two Starkey-branded staff members indoors.
✦ PlateWoman in white coat gives a high-five to a young girl wearing a hearing aid, flanked by two Starkey-branded staff members indoors.

The Business Intelligence Group recognized the Starkey vice chair and co-founder of Starkey Hearing Foundation for more than three decades of humanitarian leadership expanding access to hearing care worldwide. Tani Austin, vice chair of Starkey and co-founder of Starkey Hearing Foundation , has been named a 2026 Herizon Award honoree by the Business Intelligence Group for her leadership in advancing global hearing...

Continue reading at Hearing Review

✦ The floor

Discussion

Signed responses from readers of the wire.

✦ Clinical Takeaway ✦

No actionable change — this is a humanitarian recognition announcement with no clinical or practice implications.

✦ Why It Matters ✦

Highlights the ongoing role of manufacturer-linked philanthropic foundations in expanding global hearing care access to underserved populations.

✦ Key Points ✦
  1. 01Tani Austin named a 2026 Herizon Award honoree by the Business Intelligence Group.
  2. 02Award recognizes 30+ years of humanitarian work in global hearing care access.
  3. 03Austin is vice chair of Starkey and co-founder of the Starkey Hearing Foundation.
  4. 04Recognition is reputational and philanthropic; no product or clinical announcement involved.
✦ Claims & Evidence ✦

Tani Austin has over three decades of humanitarian work expanding global hearing care access.

press releaseunclear
✦ Related stories ✦
PU
PubMed·Journal article·Public health & policy·

Hearing loss, hearing-aid use, and mortality risk: individual participant data meta-analysis of population-based studies from Australia, Iceland, and the USA and a replication study from Norway

This meta-analysis provides the strongest population-level evidence to date that hearing loss is associated with increased mortality and that hearing-aid use may attenuate that risk — audiologists should use this evidence when counselling patients on uptake.

PU
PubMed·Journal article·Public health & policy·

Personal listening device usage, leisure noise exposure, hearing protection usage and hearing at standard frequencies: a longitudinal study from child/adolescence to young adulthood

Audiologists working with adolescents and young adults should monitor noise exposure habits longitudinally; if this study confirms hearing threshold shifts tied to device use, it strengthens counselling on safe listening — but clinical guidance changes should await full results...

PU
PubMed·Journal article·Public health & policy·

Consumer preferences for hearing health care information and services as described by older adults surveyed in Australia, Canada, England, and the United States

Findings from this cross-national survey may highlight patient-reported barriers and communication preferences that audiologists can use to improve outreach and service delivery, but practice changes should await review of the full results and their applicability to local...