New Health Features in Starkey Omega AI

Starkey's latest Omega AI hearing aids include two notable health monitoring capabilities: Balance Builder exercises and automatic respiratory rate tracking. These features expand the role of hearing aids beyond amplification, allowing users to monitor aspects of their physical wellness through their everyday devices. Both tools operate through the My Starkey app and require no extra effort during regular hearing aid use.

Balance Builder: At-Home Stability Training

The Balance Builder feature offers guided exercises designed to help improve stability and coordination from the comfort of your home. This addition builds on Starkey's previous Balance Assessment feature, which was developed and validated in collaboration with Stanford University to help identify fall risks.

The exercises focus on movements that challenge your balance system in controlled, safe ways. By practicing regularly, you can strengthen the neural pathways involved in balance and potentially reduce your risk of falls. This preventive approach aligns with research showing that proactive balance training can have meaningful effects on stability, especially when combined with proper hearing treatment.

For hearing aid users who may have avoided addressing balance concerns separately, having this capability integrated into their daily hearing technology removes barriers to participation. You simply open the app when convenient and follow the guided instructions, making wellness practices more accessible and sustainable.

Automatic Respiratory Rate Monitoring

The second health innovation in Omega AI is the industry's first automatic respiratory rate monitor built into hearing aids. This feature tracks your resting breaths per minute continuously in the background, providing data about this vital sign without requiring any action from you.

The Omega AI monitors your breathing automatically during periods of rest, analyzing the data and presenting it through the My Starkey app. Starkey designed this feature to operate without any measurable impact on the hearing aid's battery performance, maintaining the platform's 51-hour battery life. The monitoring happens passively, meaning you don't need to remember to activate it or change your routine in any way.

Having access to your respiratory rate trends over time allows you to notice patterns or changes that might warrant attention. If you observe consistent changes in your resting respiratory rate, you can bring this information to your healthcare provider for evaluation. This proactive approach to health awareness fits within the broader shift toward personal health monitoring through wearable technology.

The respiratory rate data complements other wellness metrics already available in the My Starkey app, including step counting and social activity tracking. Together, these features create a more comprehensive view of your daily health patterns, all collected through a device you're already wearing throughout your waking hours.

Wellness Tracking Beyond Hearing

Starkey has positioned itself as a leader in what the company calls "Healthable" technology—the integration of health and wellness features into hearing devices. The Omega AI platform represents the latest evolution of this approach, building on wellness features introduced in previous Starkey models.

The My Starkey app serves as the central hub for all health data collected by your hearing aids. Beyond the new Balance Builder and respiratory monitoring, the app tracks steps taken throughout the day, hours of social engagement (based on conversation detection), and periods of hearing aid use. These metrics provide insight into activity levels and social participation, both of which research has linked to cognitive health and overall wellbeing.

For many hearing aid users, wearing the devices consistently throughout the day already provides the foundation for reliable health data collection. The sensors and processors required for advanced sound processing can also gather information about movement, environmental contexts, and physiological signals. Starkey has leveraged this capability to offer health insights without requiring additional devices or changing user behavior.

The wellness features in Omega AI reflect broader trends in healthcare toward preventive monitoring and patient engagement. Rather than waiting for symptoms or scheduled checkups to identify health concerns, continuous monitoring allows for earlier awareness of changes. For older adults managing multiple health considerations, having consolidated data from a single device simplifies the tracking process.

Integrating Health Features Into Daily Life

One advantage of embedding health features into hearing aids is that users already wear the devices consistently throughout their waking hours. This differs from fitness trackers or smartwatches that people might forget to charge or choose not to wear on certain days. Hearing aids provide a consistent platform for health monitoring because they're essential to daily communication.

The passive nature of the respiratory monitoring exemplifies this approach. You don't need to remember to activate a tracking mode or wear the device in a specific position. The monitoring happens automatically as you go about your normal activities, with the hearing aids collecting data whenever appropriate conditions are met.

The Balance Builder exercises do require active participation, but the app's design makes them accessible and convenient. You can complete the exercises at home when you have a few minutes available, without scheduling appointments or traveling to a facility. This flexibility increases the likelihood that users will engage with the feature regularly, potentially seeing benefits from consistent practice.

For audiologists and hearing care professionals, these health features create additional touchpoints for patient engagement. During follow-up appointments, we can review wellness data alongside hearing performance metrics, discussing any patterns or concerns that emerge. This holistic view of patient health supports our commitment to treating the whole person rather than focusing narrowly on hearing thresholds.

Schedule Your Omega AI Consultation

The health monitoring features in Starkey Omega AI represent an expansion of what hearing aids can offer beyond amplification. If you're interested in exploring how these wellness capabilities might complement your hearing treatment, we invite you to schedule a consultation at our Englewood office.

During your appointment, we conduct comprehensive hearing evaluations and discuss how different hearing aid technologies—including the health features in Omega AI—align with your hearing needs and wellness goals. We follow best practices in hearing aid fitting, including real ear measurement verification, to confirm optimal performance regardless of which devices we recommend.

Call us at 303-534-0163 to schedule your appointment. We're here to answer your questions about Omega AI's health features and help you find the right hearing solution for your individual needs.