Saturday is the long planned session about hearing aids. If you're an experienced hearing aids user, or a less experienced user, or someone who's headed for hearing aids, or someone who's only used airpods and wants to know more, this will be a very useful session. We'll start with Pi Board Member Gabe Goldberg to discuss the buying process, learned from his experience, and then hear from experienced audiologist Janani Perera, who'll talk about the fitting process, as well as hearing aids tech trends.
Over several years, hearing tests suggested that I was heading for using hearing aids. When the time arrived, I realized that it wouldn't be a simple purchase -- researching device and provider choices was more complicated than I'd realized. It was worth learning the spectrum of capability/cost alternatives, as well as differences in provider qualifications. I worked my way through providers offering great service at high price, lousy service at low price, and (finally) great service at great price. I evaluated several brands and models at very different price points, and found a service -- which I still don't fully understand -- that saved me about $2500 with only a very modest reduction in service.
I went through this just as Direct-to-Consumer devices were becoming available, so can't discuss these. But having been served by a practice with Doctors of Audiology -- people with Au.D. credentials -- I'd be reluctant to make a self-service selection and setup, or even work with a lesser-qualified licensed hearing aid provider.
Buying hearing aids is a complicated process involving multiple tradeoffs and significant expense. The most useful advice seems to be to do plenty of research and not to immediately purchase the first devices suggested by the first provider visited. Those may be the best choices, but evaluate others.
Dr. Perera will outline the hearing aid fitting process, including the hearing test, hearing aid consultation, and fitting appointments. She will also discuss general trends in current hearing aid technology.
Dr. Janani Perera earned a Bachelor of Philosophy in Communication Science after defending an honors thesis at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Perera went on to attend the University of Maryland, where she received her clinical doctorate in audiology. Her capstone research project investigated an association between central compensation in the brainstem and enhanced cortical magnetoencephalography responses. She completed her audiology residency at Massachusetts Eye and Ear in Boston, Massachusetts. Today, she works at Alexandria Hearing Centers, providing patient-centered care during hearing evaluations, hearing aid services, vestibular evaluations, and electrophysiology testing.
The Zoom meeting invitation will be posted on the Pi's conferencing system, the TCS, and sent out to members via Email. Please check your Zoom profile online to be sure it contains your full name, because for security reasons, we can't let anyone in without their full name.
Important! if you use the Zoom app (instead of a web browser), check in advance that you have version 6.0 or better. Zoom made a massive update recently that moved everything around and even renamed the software application.
Please remember to use the Attendance Check-in link, https://wap.org/attend