Epoch-making Danish legislation

A lot of the world’s leading manufacturers of hearing instruments and audiologic equipment as well as some of the foremost pioneers in the field of audiology and hearing healthcare are Danish.

The history of Otometrics starts in Denmark, and evolves with landmarks achieved around the world particularly in Germany and the USA.

Let’s turn back time to 1950 and some epoch-making legislation passed by the Danish parliament: hearing examinations and hearing aids were made available for all, free of charge, and 3 regional hearing centers were established in Copenhagen, Aarhus and Odense. Henceforth, “defective hearing must be regarded as a handicap equal to the loss of a limb or similar afflictions".

This far-reaching legislation not only opened up new possibilities with regard to compensation for loss of hearing, but also promoted increased industrial and research activities in the field of hearing healthcare.

Already at this time, a number of Danish doctors and researchers were carrying out pioneering work in the fields of audiology and otology. They included Dr. Otto Metz, who performed the first middle ear measurements using a mechanical impedance bridge he himself had developed.

Dr. Otto Metz carried out his pioneering work
with impedance measurements at Rigshospitalet
- this photo is from the 1950s.

Poul Madsen opens shop in Odense

In the late 1950s, after some years working for Bang & Olufsen, an electronics engineer named Poul Madsen acquired a small radio shop in Odense. Later, Dr. Ole Bentzen, one of the leading pioneers of audiology in Denmark, persuaded Madsen to design and produce audiometers for the hearing center he was setting up in Odense.

Poul Madsen started his first company, Amplex, in 1955 in Odense and named his first product after Ole Bentzen, the OB 1.