New Audiology Technologies Benefit Audiologists & Their Patients

Audiologists are health care professionals who make the world a place of better hearing… one ear at a time.  They evaluate, diagnose, treat and manage hearing loss, tinnitus, and balance disorders in patients of all ages. Audiologists treat newborns, children, teens, adults and seniors.  Research and development in the field of audiology has led to the creation of many new technologies. The new technologies available today give audiologists –and you – many exciting new options to help you live a better life with hearing loss. 

Sensorineural hearing loss is one of the most common types of hearing loss. Hearing loss caused by nerve damage can be treated by a professional audiologist with hearing aids, assistive listening devices (ALDs), and hearing rehabilitation.

Benefits of New ALDs

ALDs are just what the name implies: devices used in addition to hearing aids and cochlear implants to make more sounds accessible to people with hearing loss. FM systems, soundfield systems, loop systems, and alerting devices are just a few samples of recent technologies developed in the field of audiology.

FM Systems:  One type of ALD is a micro-radio transmission system.  These are called FM systems because they use frequency-modulated radio waves to transmit sound.   A transmitter is worn by the talker or it can be plugged into a sound system.  Individual listeners wear a receiver and can adjust the volume to suit their needs. This is a common application for adults and especially for children in school classrooms.

Soundfield Systems:  Another device that’s popular in classrooms is a soundfield system.  This handy device allows the teacher to wear a small wireless microphone to enhance the speech signal and give a benefit to each student in the classroom.  These devices assist listeners with normal hearing and those with hearing loss. 

Loop Systems:  Loop systems can use infrared or FM technology and are perfect for reaching a large number of people.  A loop is created by simply placing a special speaker wire around the perimeter of the area.  The listener activates the telecoil in their hearing aid or other listening device to receive the signal.

Alerting Devices:  Alerting devices go above and beyond most of the common ALDs to provide visually-based alerts.  These devices alert hearing impaired and deaf people to special circumstances and situations.  Some examples of alerting devices are:

• Alarm clocks with strobe lights
• Vibrating pillow inserts to wake people who cannot hear the typical alarm
• Fire and smoke alarms that provide visual alarms
• Doorbell alerts that provide a visual signal 

Audiology Loves Bluetooth

One of the greatest advances in the field of audiology came by way of a consortium of technology companies.  Ericsson, Intel, Nokia, Toshiba and IBM came together to create the open source wireless communication technology referred to as Bluetooth.  The introduction of Bluetooth has allowed important advancement of alerting devices.  More and more of the products that were previously “add-ons” to hearing aid systems are now incorporated into advanced hearing aids.  The result is a more complete and often seamless listening system.