A game-play based immersive hearing skills training app to improve personal confidence and hearing capability in social and work environments for people with age related hearing loss.

ear_gym_ Ltd. （ear_gym_）是一家专注于听力健康/健康领域的英国中小企业，核心团队由Amanda Philpott， Andy Shanks， Jennifer Birtles和Morgan Crawford组成。尽管与年龄有关的听力损失在全球普遍存在，但对其与社会孤立、轻度认知障碍和痴呆症之间的关系的了解相对较晚。许多人尚未认识到听力健康的重要性，也不寻求治疗，而目前的治疗方案或培训方案往往昂贵且/或功能/结果有限。Ear_gym_正在寻求资金来解决这个问题，通过个性化、愉快和负担得起的基于游戏的数字听觉训练计划，为人们提供主动控制听力健康的工具。ear_gym_与“健康老龄化挑战”密切相关，旨在让人们尽可能长时间保持活跃、高效、独立和社会联系。帮助人们保持和改善听力将为使用者带来健康益处，并在预防相关认知能力下降方面为NHS和全球卫生保健系统节省成本，以及显著的基于工作场所的经济效益；全球每年因听力损失造成的经济损失估计为9810亿美元（英国为250亿英镑）（McDaid等人，2021年）。

ear_gym_ Ltd. (ear_gym_) is a UK SME operating in the hearing health/well-being sector with a core team of Amanda Philpott, Andy Shanks, Jennifer Birtles and Morgan Crawford. Although age-related hearing loss is prevalent globally, knowledge of its correlation with social isolation, mild cognitive impairment and dementia is relatively recent. Many people do not yet recognise the importance of hearing health and do not seek treatment, while current treatment options or training programmes are often expensive and/or limited in functionality/outcome.ear_gym_ is seeking funding to address this by providing people with the tools to proactively take control of their hearing health through a personalised, enjoyable and affordable game-based digital auditory training programme.ear_gym_ is closely aligned with the Healthy Ageing Challenge to keep people active, productive, independent and socially connected for as long as possible. Helping people maintain and improve their hearing will provide health benefits for the user and cost-saving benefits for the NHS and global healthcare systems in terms of preventing associated cognitive decline, as well as significant workplace-based economic benefit; the annual global economic cost of hearing loss is estimated to be $981 billion (£25 billion in the UK) (McDaid et al., 2021) through lost productivity and early retirement.