156 - AirPods as a Hearing Aid Substitute? Exploring NAL's Research with Nicky Chong-White, PhD

Nicky Chong-White, PhD is a Principal Engineer and leads smart technology innovations at the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL) in Australia. She sits down with Brian Taylor to discuss AirPods Pro as a potential substitute for hearing aids. Recent reports have indicated that Apple might be interested to further enhance the hearing features in its latest devices. Currently, features like Headphone Accommodations, conversation boost, and ambient noise reduction can enhance hearing in specific situations. They discuss how the AirPods Pro can be beneficial for individuals with mild hearing loss and interesting insights gained from a study conducted on people with normal audiograms that have situational hearing challenges in noise. Dr. Chong White emphasizes that the AirPods Pro should not replace hearing aids but can be a valuable option for certain individuals. Articles Referenced in Discussion: 1) Chong-White N, Mejia J, Galloway J, Edwards B. Evaluating Apple AirPods Pro with Headphone Accommodations as hearing devices. Hearing Review. 2021;28(12)8-11. 2) Chong-White, N et al valuation of Apple AirPods Pro with Conversation Boost and Ambient Noise Reduction for People with Hearing Loss in Noisy Environments. The Hearing Review. March 2022 3) Chong-White N, Mejia J, Valderrama-Valenzuela J, Edwards B. Evaluation of Apple AirPods Pro with conversation boost and ambient noise reduction for people with hearing loss in noisy environments. The Hearing Review. 2022;29(4):24-27 4) Chong-White, N. Evaluating Apple AirPods Pro 2 Hearing Protection and Listening. The Hearing Review. June 2023 5) Valderrama, J. T., Mejia, J., Wong, A., Chong-White, N., & Edwards, B. (2023). The value of headphone accommodations in Apple Airpods Pro for managing speech-in-noise hearing difficulties of individuals with normal audiograms. International journal of audiology, 1–11. Be sure to subscribe to our channel for the latest episodes each week and follow This Week in Hearing on LinkedIn and Twitter. - https://twitter.com/WeekinHearing - https://www.linkedin.com/company/this-week-in-hearing - https://hearinghealthmatters.org/thisweek/