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Hire Raul S.

Denmark

USD 100 /hr

Connecting Hearing Science and Technical Expertise with Clinical Audiological Experience

Profile Summary

I am a technical audiologist with 20 years in the field. After 10 years working as a dispensing audiologist, I became an engineer and scientist, accumulating another 10 years in hearing research and development.

Subject Matter Expertise

• ☆ Acoustic Engineering
• ☆ R
• ☆ Otolaryngology/ENT
• ☆ Deafness & Hearing Impairment
• ☆ Public Health
• ☆ Global Health
• ☆ Quality of Life Assessment
• ☆ Audiology
• ☆ Scientific Proofreading & Editing

Services

• Writing
• Research
• Consulting
• Data & AI
• Product Development

Writing Medical Writing, Technical Writing, Copywriting, Creative Writing

Research Market Research, User Research, Meta-Research, Feasibility Study, Technology Scouting, Fact Checking, Gap Analysis

Consulting Business Strategy Consulting, Healthcare Consulting

Data & AI Data Visualization, Data Mining, Data Cleaning, Data Processing, Data Insights

Product Development Product Evaluation, Concept Development, Product Launch Support, Prototyping

Work Experience

Oticon (Denmark)

May 2023 - Present

Institute for Globally Distributed Open Research and Education

January 2023 - Present

PostDoc

Interacoustics A/S

April 2020 - December 2022

Research Fellow

University of Nottingham

February 2022 - November 2022

PostDoc

Technical University of Denmark

June 2020 - January 2022

Education

MSc Engineering Acoustics

Danmarks Tekniske Universitet

September 2013 - September 2015

Certifications

• Certification details not provided.

Publications

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Oscar M. Cañete, Gérard Loquet, Raul Sánchez-López, Dan Dupont Hougaard, Rikke Schnack-Petersen, Michael Gaihede, Jesper H. Schmidt, Dorte Hammershøi, Tobias Neher (2024). Auditory Profile-Based Hearing Aid Fitting: Self-Reported Benefit for First-Time Hearing Aid Users . Audiology Research.

Oscar M Cañete, Gérard Loquet, Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Hougaard DD, Rikke Schnack-Petersen, Michael Gaihede, Jesper Hvass Schmidt, Dorte Hammershøi, Tobias Neher (2024). Auditory Profile-Based Hearing Aid Fitting: Self-Reported Benefit for First-Time Hearing Aid Users . Audiology Research.

Michal Fereczkowski, Raul H. Sanchez-Lopez, Stine Christiansen, Tobias Neher (2024). Amplitude Compression for Preventing Rollover at Above-Conversational Speech Levels . Trends in Hearing.

Carl Christian Pedersen, Ellen Raben Pedersen, Søren Laugesen, Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Jacob Nielsen, Chris Bang Sørensen, Christos Sidiras, René Gyldenlund Pedersen, Jesper Hvass Schmidt (2023). Comparison of hearing aid fitting effectiveness with audiograms from either user-operated or traditional audiometry in a clinical setting: a study protocol for a blinded non-inferiority randomised controlled trial . BMJ Open.

Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Mengfan Wu, Michal Fereczkowski, Sébastien Santurette, Monika Baumann, Borys Kowalewski, Tobias Piechowiak, Nikolai Bisgaard, Gert Ravn, Sreeram Kaithali Narayanan, et al. (2022). Towards Auditory Profile-Based Hearing-Aid Fittings: BEAR Rationale and Clinical Implementation . Audiology Research.

Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Mengfan Wu, Michal Fereczkowski, Sébastien Santurette, Monika Baumann, Borys Kowalewski, Tobias Piechowiak, Nikolai Bisgaard, Gert Ravn, Sreeram Kaithali Narayanan, et al. (2022). Towards Auditory Profile-Based Hearing-Aid Fittings: BEAR Rationale and Clinical Implementation . Audiology Research.

Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Torsten Dau, William M. Whitmer (2022). Audiometric profiles and patterns of benefit: a data-driven analysis of subjective hearing difficulties and handicaps . International Journal of Audiology.

Sanchez-Lopez, Raul, Wu, Mengfan, Fereczkowski, Michal, Santurette, Sebastien, Baumann, Monika, Kowalewski, Borys, Piechowiak, Tobias, Bisgaard, Nikolai, Ravn, Gert, Narayanan, Sreeram Kaithali, et al. (2022). Towards Auditory Profile-Based Hearing-Aid Fittings: BEAR Rationale and Clinical Implementation . Audiology Research.

Sanchez-Lopez, Raul, Dau, Torsten, Whitmer, William M. (2022). Audiometric profiles and patterns of benefit: a data-driven analysis of subjective hearing difficulties and handicaps . International Journal of Audiology.

Raul Sanchez-Lopez (2021). Sobre la autoría en publicaciones académicas . Auditio.

Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Michal Fereczkowski, Sébastien Santurette, Torsten Dau, Tobias Neher (2021). Towards Auditory Profile-Based Hearing-Aid Fitting: Fitting Rationale and Pilot Evaluation . Audiology Research.

Raul Sanchez-Lopez and Michal Fereczkowski and Sébastien Santurette and Torsten Dau and Tobias Neher(2021). Towards Auditory Profile-Based Hearing-Aid Fitting: Fitting Rationale and Pilot Evaluation . Audiology Research. 11. p. 10-21. Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute

Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Michal Fereczkowski, Sébastien Santurette, Torsten Dau, Tobias Neher (2021). Towards Auditory Profile-Based Hearing-Aid Fitting: Fitting Rationale and Pilot Evaluation . Audiology Research.

Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Michal Fereczkowski, Sébastien Santurette, Torsten Dau, Tobias Neher(2021). Towards Auditory Profile-Based Hearing-Aid Fitting . Audiology Research. 11. (1). p. 10--21. Pagepress

Christos Sidiras, Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Ellen Raben Pedersen, Chris Bang Sørensen, Jacob Nielsen, Jesper Hvass Schmidt(2021). User-Operated Audiometry Project (UAud) – Introducing an Automated User-Operated System for Audiometric Testing Into Everyday Clinic Practice . Frontiers in Digital Health. 3.

Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Silje Grini Nielsen, Mouhamad El-Haj-Ali, Federica Bianchi, Michal Fereczkowski, Oscar M Cañete, Mengfan Wu, Tobias Neher, Torsten Dau, Sébastien Santurette(2021). Auditory Tests for Characterizing Hearing Deficits in Listeners With Various Hearing Abilities . Frontiers in Neuroscience. 15. Frontiers Research Foundation

Sanchez-Lopez, Raul, Fereczkowski, Michal, Santurette, Sebastien, Dau, Torsten, Neher, Tobias (2021). Towards Auditory Profile-Based Hearing-Aid Fitting: Fitting Rationale and Pilot Evaluation . Audiology Research.

Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Michal Fereczkowski, Tobias Neher, Sébastien Santurette, Torsten Dau (2020). Robust Data-Driven Auditory Profiling Towards Precision Audiology . Trends in Hearing.

Mengfan Wu, Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Mouhamad El-Haj-Ali, Silje G. Nielsen, Michal Fereczkowski, Torsten Dau, Sébastien Santurette, Tobias Neher (2020). Investigating the Effects of Four Auditory Profiles on Speech Recognition, Overall Quality, and Noise Annoyance With Simulated Hearing-Aid Processing Strategies . Trends in Hearing.

Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Michal Fereczkowski, Tobias Neher, Sébastien Santurette, Torsten Dau(2020). Robust Data-Driven Auditory Profiling Towards Precision Audiology . Trends in Hearing. 24. SAGE Publications

Sanchez-Lopez, R., Fereczkowski, M., Neher, T., Santurette, S., Dau, T.(2020). Robust Data-Driven Auditory Profiling Towards Precision Audiology . Trends in Hearing. 24.

Robust Data-driven Auditory Profiling Towards Precision Audiology @article{doi:10.1177/2331216520973539, author = {Raul Sanchez-Lopez and Michal Fereczkowski and Tobias Neher and Sébastien Santurette and Torsten Dau}, title ={Robust Data-Driven Auditory Profiling Towards Precision Audiology}, journal = {Trends in Hearing}, volume = {24}, number = {}, pages = {2331216520973539}, year = {2020}, doi = {10.1177/2331216520973539}, note ={PMID: 33272110}, URL = { https://doi.org/10.1177/2331216520973539 }, eprint = { https://doi.org/10.1177/2331216520973539 } , abstract = { The sources and consequences of a sensorineural hearing loss are diverse. While several approaches have aimed at disentangling the physiological and perceptual consequences of different etiologies, hearing deficit characterization and rehabilitation have been dominated by the results from pure-tone audiometry. Here, we present a novel approach based on data-driven profiling of perceptual auditory deficits that attempts to represent auditory phenomena that are usually hidden by, or entangled with, audibility loss. We hypothesize that the hearing deficits of a given listener, both at hearing threshold and at suprathreshold sound levels, result from two independent types of “auditory distortions.” In this two-dimensional space, four distinct “auditory profiles” can be identified. To test this hypothesis, we gathered a data set consisting of a heterogeneous group of listeners that were evaluated using measures of speech intelligibility, loudness perception, binaural processing abilities, and spectrotemporal resolution. The subsequent analysis revealed that distortion type-I was associated with elevated hearing thresholds at high frequencies and reduced temporal masking release and was significantly correlated with elevated speech reception thresholds in noise. Distortion type-II was associated with low-frequency hearing loss and abnormally steep loudness functions. The auditory profiles represent four robust subpopulations of hearing-impaired listeners that exhibit different degrees of perceptual distortions. The four auditory profiles may provide a valuable basis for improved hearing rehabilitation, for example, through profile-based hearing-aid fitting. } } . Trends in Hearing.

Mengfan Wu, Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Mouhamad El-Haj-Ali, Silje G. Nielsen, Michal Fereczkowski, Torsten Dau, Sébastien Santurette, Tobias Neher(2020). Investigating the Effects of Four Auditory Profiles on Speech Recognition, Overall Quality, and Noise Annoyance With Simulated Hearing-Aid Processing Strategies . Trends in Hearing. 24. SAGE Publications

Wu, M., Sanchez-Lopez, R., El-Haj-Ali, M., Nielsen, S.G., Fereczkowski, M., Dau, T., Santurette, S., Neher, T.(2020). Investigating the Effects of Four Auditory Profiles on Speech Recognition, Overall Quality, and Noise Annoyance With Simulated Hearing-Aid Processing Strategies . Trends in Hearing. 24.

(2018). Data-Driven Approach for Auditory Profiling and Characterization of Individual Hearing Loss . Trends in Hearing.

Raul Sanchez Lopez, Federica Bianchi, Michal Fereczkowski, Sébastien Santurette, Torsten Dau (2018). Data-Driven Approach for Auditory Profiling and Characterization of Individual Hearing Loss . Trends in Hearing.

Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Federica Bianchi, Michal Fereczkowski, Sébastien Santurette, Torsten Dau(2018). Data-Driven Approach for Auditory Profiling and Characterization of Individual Hearing Loss . Trends in Hearing. 22. p. 12. SAGE Publications

Sanchez Lopez, R., Bianchi, F., Fereczkowski, M., Santurette, S., Dau, T.(2018). Data-Driven Approach for Auditory Profiling and Characterization of Individual Hearing Loss . Trends in Hearing. 22.

PREPRINT

Johannes Zaar, Lisbeth Birkelund Simonsen, Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Søren Laugesen (2023). The Audible Contrast Threshold (ACT™) test: a clinical spectro-temporal modulation detection test .

Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Torsten Dau, William M. Whitmer (2020). Audiometric profiles and patterns of benefit. A data-driven analysis of subjective hearing difficulties and handicaps .

Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Michal Fereczkowski, Sébastien Santurette, Torsten Dau, Tobias Neher (2020). Auditory Profile-based Hearing-aid Fitting: A Proof-Of-Concept Study .

Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Michal Fereczkowski, Tobias Neher, Sébastien Santurette, Torsten Dau (2020). Robust data-driven auditory profiling towards precision audiology .

Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Silje Grini Nielsen, Mouhamad El-Haj-Ali, Federica Bianchi, Michal Fereczkowski, Oscar M Cañete, Mengfan Wu, Tobias Neher, Torsten Dau, Sébastien Santurette (2020). Auditory tests for characterizing hearing deficits in listeners with various hearing abilities: The BEAR test battery .

Sanchez-Lopez, Raul and Dau, Torsten and Whitmer, William M.(2020). Audiometric profiles and patterns of benefit. A data-driven analysis of subjective hearing difficulties and handicaps . medRxiv.

CONFERENCE PAPER

Mengfan Wu, Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Mouhamad El-Haj-Ali, Silje Grini Nielsen, Michal Fereczkowski, Torsten Dau, Sébastien Santurette, Tobias Neher(2020). Perceptual evaluation of six hearing-aid processing strategies from the perspective of auditory profiling: Insights from the BEAR project . Proceedings of the International Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research. 7. p. 265--272. The Danavox Jubilee Foundation

Wu, M and Sanchez-Lopez, R and El-Haj-Ali, Mouhamad and Fereczkowski, Michal and Dau, T and Santurette, Sebastien and Neher, Tobias(2020). Perceptual evaluation of six hearing-aid processing strategies from the perspective of auditory profiling: Insights from the BEAR project. Proceedings of ISAAR 2019: Auditory Learning in Biological and Artificial Systems. 7.

Hearing-aid settings in connection to supra-threshold auditory processing deficits @inproceedings{9d78d0d8293142a3b927ae4b5e00e522, title = "Hearing-aid settings in connection to supra-threshold auditory processing deficits", abstract = "Plomp (1986) described the consequences of hearing impairment in speech communication as the sum of two components: attenuation and distortion. Recent studies have shown that the sensitivity to spectro-temporal modulations (STM) might be linked to speech intelligibility in noise, suggesting that supra-threshold, or “internal”, distortions would affect both speech and STM perception similarly. Furthermore, reduced sensitivity to STM may also affect a listener{\textquoteright}s preference for a hearing aid (HA) compensation strategy. Here, speech intelligibility and STM sensitivity were measured in 20 hearing-impaired (HI) listeners. One group of the listeners (Group A) showed an inability to detect STM, whereas the other listeners (Group B) exhibited similar thresholds as the control group with young normal-hearing (NH) listeners. The two HI groups participated in a perceptual evaluation experiment using multi-stimulus comparisons (MUSHRA). The audio files were processed by a HA simulator fitted to the individual hearing loss and the performance was rated in terms of four attributes: clarity, comfort, preference and listening effort. A correlation analysis showed that clarity and preference were correlated in Group A whereas comfort and listening effort were correlated in Group B. The classification of HI listeners in auditory profiles might be valuable for efficient HA fitting.", keywords = "Hearing aids, Hearing loss, Supra-threshold distortion, Spectro-temporal modulations, Speech intelligibility", author = "{Sanchez Lopez}, Raul and Torsten Dau and Jepsen, {Morten L{\o}ve}", year = "2020", language = "English", volume = "7", series = "Proceedings of the International Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research", publisher = "The Danavox Jubilee Foundation", pages = "221--228", booktitle = "Proceedings of the International Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research", note = "International Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research : Auditory Learning in Biological and Artificial Systems, ISAAR2019 ; Conference date: 21-08-2019 Through 23-08-2019", url = "http://isaar.eu", } . Proceedings of the International Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research.

(2019). A Clinical Test Battery for Better hEAring Rehabilitation (BEAR). Towards the prediction of individual auditory deficits and hearing-aid benefit . Proceedings of the ICA 2019 and EAA Euroregio : 23rd International Congress on Acoustics.

Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Silje Grini Nielsen, Oscar M Cañete, Michal Fereczkowski, Mengfan Wu, Tobias Neher, Torsten Dau, Sébastien Santurette(2019). A clinical test battery for Better hEAring Rehabilitation (BEAR): Towards the prediction of individual auditory deficits and hearing-aid benefit . Proceedings of the 23rd International Congress on Acoustics. p. 3841--3848. Deutsche Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Akustik e.V.

Sanchez-Lopez, Raul and Fereczkowski, Michal and Bianchi, Federica and Piechowiak, Tobias and Hau, Ole and Pedersen, Michael Syskind and Behrens, Thomas and Neher, Tobias and Dau, Torsten and Santurette, S{\'{e}}bastien(2018). Technical evaluation of hearing-aid fitting parameters for different auditory profiles . Euronoise 2018. p. 381--388. 11th European Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering

Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Michal Fereczkowski, Federica Bianchi, Tobias Piechowiak, Ole Hau, Michael Syskind Pedersen, Thomas Behrens, Tobias Neher, Torsten Dau, Sébastien Santurette(2018). Technical evaluation of hearing-aid fitting parameters for different auditory profiles . Euronoise 2018 - Conference Proceedings. p. 381--388. European Acoustics Association

Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Torsten Dau(2016). Modeling spectro - temporal modulation perception in normal - hearing listeners . Proceedings of Inter-Noise 2016. Deutsche Gesellschaft f{\"u}r Akustik

Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Bastian Epp(2016). Simultaneous measurement of auditory-steady-state responses and otoacoustic emissions to estimate peripheral compression . Proceedings of ISAAR 2015.

DATA SET

Sanchez-Lopez, Raul and Fereczkowski, Michal and Santurette, S{\'{e}}bastien and Dau, Torsten and Neher, Tobias(2020). Data and materials from: "Auditory Profile-based Hearing-aid Fitting: A Proof-of-concept study" . Zenodo.

(2019). Data from "Auditory tests for characterizing hearing deficits: The BEAR test battery" .

DISSERTATION THESIS

Clinical auditory profiling and profile-based hearing-aid fitting @phdthesis{3042892b7015464485153d52dcbed97b, title = "Clinical auditory profiling and profile-based hearing-aid fitting", abstract = "In this thesis, the basis for {"}precision audiology{"} was explored. The prerequisites for implementing precision treatments are 1) that the diseases must be heterogenous, 2) that there exist multiple options for treatment and 3) that there are {"}markers{"} that associate certain characteristics of the patient to specific treatments. The sources and consequences of a sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) are diverse and the hearing devices, especially hearing aids, have multiple configurations that can be adjusted for specific needs. The present thesis focused on the investigation of auditory biomarkers that allow the link between auditory perceptual deficits and hearing-aid settings. Data-driven auditory profiling has the potential to identify hidden patterns in the data and subpopulations of hearing-impaired people with distinct differences in terms of their perceptual hearing deficits.The first study of this thesis showed that a method for auditory profiling can provide meaningful results. The results supported the hypothesis of having four profiles along two independent dimensions of perceptual deficits resulting from different auditory distortions. However, the main limitation for drawing strong conclusions was the selection of the analyzed datasets. In the second study, a new test battery for characterizing auditory deficits was proposed and tested on 75 listeners with various degrees of hearing loss and speech discrimination. The test battery assessed the auditory processing abilities of the listeners covering aspects such as audibility, loudness perception, binaural processing abilities, speech perception, spectro-temporal modulation sensitivity and spectro-temporal resolution. The dataset was then analyzed with an iterative data-driven profiling method based on the aforementioned profiling method. This robust auditory profiling yielded four clinically relevant subgroups of listeners. Importantly, the results were consistent with previous approaches of hearing loss characterization leading to the following conclusions: 1) The listeners{\textquoteright} hearing deficits were characterized by two independent auditory distortions, a “speech intelligibility related distortion”, that affected listeners with audiometric thresholds above 50 dB hearing level (HL) at high-frequencies, and a “loudness perception related distortion”, exhibited by listeners with audiometric thresholds above 30 dB HL at low frequencies; and 2) The four profiles (A-B-C-D), showed similarities to the audiometric phenotypes provided by Dubno et al. (2013) suggesting that Profile B might be considered a sensory loss and Profile D a metabolic loss.Finally, a proof-of-concept study was performed, where listeners evaluated different compensation strategies using a realistic hearing-aid simulator. The results suggested that listeners belonging to different profiles might prefer different compensation strategies. Listeners with high degree of loudness-related deficits might benefit from different forms of gain prescription, whereas listeners with speech intelligibility-related deficits might benefit fromsignal-to-noise ratio improvement. Different approaches for precision audiology may be implemented in the near future, which should have implications for hearing-aid development, hearing loss characterization and the quality of service in the hearing-care clinic towards an evidence-based audiological practice.", author = "{Sanchez Lopez}, Raul", year = "2020", language = "English", series = "Contributions to Hearing Research", publisher = "DTU Health Technology", } . Contributions to Hearing Research.

CONFERENCE POSTER

Raul Sanchez-Lopez, Michal Fereczkowski, Sébastien Santurette, Torsten Dau(2016). Spectro-temporal modulation sensitivity and discrimination in normal hearing and hearing -impaired listeners . Dansk Teknisk Audiologisk Selskab årsmøde 2016 , Stouby, Denmark, 09/09/2016.