Michal Fereczkowski

Michal Fereczkowski is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Clinical Research at the University of Southern Denmark's Faculty of Health Sciences, affiliated with the Research unit of Oto Rhino Laryngology at Odense University Hospital (OUH) and Kolding Institute (KI). His work bridges clinical audiology and hearing science with engineering principles to address hearing impairment through advanced diagnostic tools and hearing aid technologies.

His research centers on rollover phenomena (speech intelligibility decline at high volumes), cochlear synaptopathy assessment, and auditory profiling for precision rehabilitation. Key focus areas include:

• Development of the BEAR (Better hEAring Rehabilitation) test battery for individualized hearing deficit characterization
• Effects of semantic context and cognitive factors on speech perception in noise
• Optimization of hearing aid fitting strategies for above-conversational speech levels
• Validation of clinical devices for otoacoustic emissions measurement

Analysis of his 32 research outputs reveals a cohesive trajectory toward personalized audiology. His recent publications (2021-2024) consistently address rollover mechanisms and auditory profiling, demonstrating how clinical fitting rationales and semantic context can mitigate intelligibility declines at high speech levels. The BEAR project forms the cornerstone of his work, enabling data-driven hearing aid fittings that account for individual auditory deficits beyond standard audiograms.

Dr. Fereczkowski actively supervises PhD candidates including L. Jürgensen (project: "Rollover Effects at Above-Conversational Speech Levels") and M. Wu (project: "Investigating Speech-in-Noise Outcome in older Hearing-Aid Users"). His research is funded through the BEAR initiative, which investigates auditory profile-based hearing aid benefit prediction across diverse noise scenarios and listener characteristics.

As a core member of the BEAR project team within OUH's Oto Rhino Laryngology unit, he collaborates with interdisciplinary researchers to translate auditory profiling research into clinical practice, developing tools that integrate physiological, perceptual, and cognitive assessments for comprehensive hearing rehabilitation.