Hearing music better, not louder
From there, Fielding made the leap from full-time clinical medicine to focus on the Audeara dream. Teaming with good friend Chris Jeffery, the pair aimed to bring the joy of music to all people, regardless of their hearing capabilities.
A businessman, inventor, doctor and former PR man for a Hollywood producer – BGS Old Boy Dr James Fielding ’04 is certainly an all-rounder. He is also the CEO of Audeara, which produces the world’s first audio-perfecting headphones with a built-in hearing test.
Audeara was originally conceived as a medical device, giving patients a way to perform quality audiograms without having to wait for an appointment at a clinic. The concept soon grew to face the challenge of adjusting music in real-time based on a person’s hearing profile and was translated into headphones.
Fielding’s passion for trying different things can be traced back to his school days. He was destined to attend BGS, as the son of prominent Old Boy Dr George Fielding ’73. “My dad went to BGS, both my uncles went to BGS and were School Captains,” he said. “I loved it. The opportunities at the School are endless. What I really respected was that it wasn’t about how good you were in anything, but about that you had a go. There were so many people doing different things.” “Being at BGS surrounded by so many people who are so amazing at so many things, you believe you can fit into that space,” he said. “It was very easy to see what success looked like. It was an achievable goal and it broke down so many barriers around what life could be like.”
“It came from seeing patients and wanting to meet a need,” he said. “Hearing just isn’t on people’s radars and it should be. The more we dug into it, the more we learned about all the links to Alzheimer’s Disease. Nine per cent of Alzheimer’s could be prevented if you correct mid-age hearing loss. This occurs through social isolation.”
After graduating from BGS, Fielding studied business management and biomedical science at The University of Queensland. From there he continued to take opportunities from different fields, working in financial research analysis and then public relations in New York.
Fielding said Audeara used entertainment as the anchor to get people to pay attention to their hearing. “One in five teenagers have hearing loss and 60% is self-inflicted. People are causing themselves long-term problems and most of it is about awareness. In the same way that people never used to wear seatbelts or sun cream, I consider this part of that next frontier around overall health and wellness.”
He returned home to complete a medical degree at UQ and was based at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.
To purchase the Audeara headphones or find out more visit www.audeara.com.
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