Technological advances in hearing aids give patients more options

Now hear this! From analog to digital, technology for hearing aids continues to evolve.

For Dr. Abe Vore, 43, the evolutionary world of hearing devices has been a significant factor throughout his life, personally and professionally. As the founder of Eagle Hearing in 2014, he was initially diagnosed with hearing loss at just 18 months of age.

“I’ve always known how important hearing is to maintaining a quality of life and being included in what I call the conversation,” Vore said. “I just thought this was a field in which I could personally make a difference.”

A graduate of the University of Iowa and Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., an institution that for more than 150 years has worked to empower deaf and hard-of-hearing communities globally, Vore knows firsthand what it takes to assist those experiencing hearing loss.

“I know what it is like to be in their shoes,” he said. “And that certainly helps me to understand where people are coming from and the frustrations they may have.”

In today’s health care arena for the hard of hearing, Vore must also keep pace with the rapid developments in hearing technology, a huge requirement, considering the tiny sizes of such devices.

“There are definitely size limitations with hearing aids, yet the manufacturers are still trying to fit a lot of technology into a small device,” he said. “But I believe that technology will continue to advance as we make better computer chips.”

For those suffering hearing loss, technology continues to be a game-changer. Rebecca Taylor, who has been helping patients with hearing issues for 29 years, vividly recalls long ago, the old-school manner in which she made adjustments to a patient’s device.

“One of the things I tell my patients is when I first started, I had to adjust the devices with an eyeglass screwdriver,” said Taylor, an audiologist at the St. Luke’s Elks Hearing and Balance Center.

“So needless to say, patient satisfaction rates are much higher than they were many years ago.”

And the technological shift from analog to digital also keeps accelerating at a quick pace.

“The technology truly does get better with every iteration of hearing aids that come out,” she said. “Going to digital meant the devices became computer programmable. Now, we can be far more exact with the hearing prescription for the patient. That in itself has led to more satisfaction.”

For Millie Kane, who will turn 87 in May, a bit of research on her part helped connect the dots between the role hearing loss can play in contributing to the possible onset of dementia, prompting her to get a hearing test.

“I never thought of going to a doctor earlier because I never really thought of myself as having hearing loss,” Kane said. “In hindsight, and with what I know now, I probably would have gone in for a hearing test earlier in life.”

Diagnosed by an audiologist with low to moderate hearing loss, Kane wears a Phonak brand hearing aid in each ear. Considered a top-tier device, and through an app on her phone, she can easily connect to her Bluetooth to make necessary sound adjustments.

In her case, the biggest issue was being able to watch television and to clearly understand what was being said.

“Fortunately, I don’t need to adjust it for everyday use,” she said. “But I found the volume changes on some television programs which makes it hard for me to hear consistently. It can be quite frustrating. At first I did not know whether it was my TV or my hearing.”

When it comes to technology, such changes can be a scary or touchy proposition for seniors who may not be tech-savvy.

But not for Kane. “I already knew how to use an iPhone and a laptop, so that was a big factor for me.”

For Taylor’s patients, adapting to technology depends solely on the individual patient.

“Some of these seniors are pretty awesome, they come in with their iPhone, or they’ve got their Apple Watch and they’re ready to go,” she said.

Vore, said he too finds many of his elderly patients “excited about using their smartphones” to help them hear better. “They are taking advantage of the help they can get. Technology helps us to diagnosis, and when we do a better job, we have less follow-up with patients which means we have better outcomes.”

With ongoing research continually focused on improving the lives of those suffering hearing loss, it sounds as if hearing health care is keeping pace with technology.

Auracast is one example of technology helping people hear better. Similar to choosing a Wi-Fi network, the feature uses Bluetooth capability to allow users to connect directly to audio.

“Say you are at the airport at your gate, you can just select your gate on your phone through the menu because you only want to hear the announcements for that particular gate,” Taylor said.

Also impacting advancements in hearing aids is 5G cellular technology. In some cases, 5G can allow for digital adjustments to be made online, particularly for those living in more rural environments.

“For example, a person living in McCall could have a digital adjustment without them having to actually come into our office,” Taylor said. “Once they’re fit, if they agree to it, we mark that in the manufacturer’s software. And then through an app, we can meet with them and make changes to their hearing aids, upload it to the cloud, then they download it to their app and into their hearing aids.”

Artificial intelligence is also helping those battling hearing loss. Major improvements in omnidirectional microphones have made them more advanced or smarter, helping devices steer sound or suppress noise while still focused on speech from any direction.

“AI learns the speech signal that the person is wanting to hear while it’s in the presence of all this background noise that we in general don’t want to hear,” Taylor said.

“With multiple talkers, AI can improve the signal of the noise ratio with what the device perceives as noise,” Vore said. “Every decibel or dB improvement of the signal of the noise ratio can have a significant impact on a person with hearing loss.”

An important aspect, considering the human ear canal comes in a different shape and size for each person. A fact that has led to technological changes for audiologists conducting real-ear verification (REV) measurements, a testing process to help ensure correct amplification for a patient’s device.

“We can put the patient’s hearing loss information into the software and program the hearing aids to that particular loss,” Taylor said. “We then put the hearing aids in the ear with a probe where we actually measure the sound pressure level at the eardrum to make sure all the different frequencies and different intensity levels are what they need.”

Such diagnostic advancements help provide an accurate prescription for those with hearing loss, reinforcing the notion, Vore said, that it’s best for patients to visit an audiologist who can correctly program a device.

“Going somewhere that is not considered a professional medical environment can possibly mean your hearing aid may not be set properly,” he said. “And then a patient may not know what benefit they are missing.”

Plus, with so many advancements in hearing aid technology, both Vore and Taylor highly recommend patients stick with “top-tier manufacturers” of such devices.

“When it comes to hearing aids, it’s not like going to a department store and looking at all the televisions where you can easily see the difference in the picture quality,” Vore said. “With hearing aids, people often don’t know what they’re missing.”

Taylor clearly hears that.

“There are some absolutely terrible manufacturers out there, and there are some amazing ones that do all the research and development,” she said. “The most important thing a patient can do is work with somebody that they trust to make the appropriate recommendation.”

Solid advice that has helped Ed and Velda Woodstock. Married for 57 years, they both rely on hearing devices daily.

Ed who will turn 93 in May, has used an aid in both ears since 1967. A former cost analyst, he has used eight devices throughout his life, the latest model coming about 15 months ago. He keeps a mini remote control tucked into his pocket to make adjustments in his listening environments.

“I don’t think I would even be able to exist without hearing aids. It was like being born again,” he said.

Velda, who spent 43 years working as a nurse, is completely deaf in her right ear, and has used a hearing device in her left ear for about 30 years.

“I still wear one in my good ear, otherwise I could not hear a thing,” she said. “I could never go to a movie, to church, or even listen to the TV without my hearing aid. It’s the first thing you put in each morning, and the last thing you take out at night.”

From patient to trained audiologist, Vore is quite familiar with stories and situations similar to the Woodstocks’.

“Technology has advanced a lot more than I ever expected it to in my lifetime,” he said. “A lot of research and development is going into this technology, and the manufacturers keep improving things every year. I think it will take it to a whole new level.”