editor

correction to the fall 2019 article “Hearing Help for Veterans”: Service members do not need to prove their hearing condition is service-related, nor is there a cost for hearing aids received through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

6 hearing health hhf.org @ editor dear editor: Your article “Hearing Help for Veterans” in the Fall 2019 issue had a number of inaccuracies. First it said “hearing aids purchased through the VA average $400 each vs. $2,400 through private practice.” Veterans do not pay for hearing aids through the VA [the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs]. They are provided at no cost. The $400 is a wholesale cost to the VA, not to the veteran.

Next, you cite that the VA requires “proof that your hearing loss is service-related.” That is untrue. Most of our veterans who have hearing aids have hearing loss that is not serviceconnected, and the VA provided the hearing aids. At one time the hearing loss did have to be service-connected to receive hearing aids but it changed about 15 years ago. There are many people out there who don’t know this.

You also state that “active service duty members, veterans, and military personnel are eligible to get hearing aids through the VA.” Only veterans get hearing aids through the VA. The U.S. Department of Defense has its own audiology providers and provides hearing aids to active service duty members and military personnel through their system. Janet P. Andrews, Au.D., CCC-A Audiology and Speech Pathology Supervisor Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Service New Mexico VA Health Care System from the editor: We deeply regret the errors in this article and apologize for any confusion the incorrect information may have caused. Service members do not need to prove their hearing condition is service-related, nor is there a cost for hearing aids received through the VA. We have updated the online version of this article at hhf.org/magazine and we very much appreciate the time and effort that Dr. Andrews and others took to alert us of our inaccuracies.

dear editor: I just read the article “Have a Hearing Loss in the Hospital?” in your Fall 2019 publication and wanted to respond. My 91-yearold mother has a severe hearing loss. It started in her early 60s and has gotten progressively worse through the years. She wears up-to-date hearing aids in both ears but they don’t help much anymore. She is good at lip-reading in the right conditions. Unfortunately she also has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Her hearing loss greatly adds to the confusion caused by being in an unfamiliar hospital setting.

Luckily we have discovered a couple of free smartphone apps that have been incredibly helpful for family, friends, aides, doctors, nurses, assisted living staff, etc. The iPhone app is called Hearing Helper. The user presses the microphone icon and speaks into the phone; the words spoken appear on the screen; and you show the screen to the person who is hard of hearing. The size of the print is adjustable. It is not perfect and mistakes are made, but you can manually make corrections if needed. It has been an invaluable tool. We show the app to everyone who comes in contact with my mom and they are all very grateful to know of its existence. (For Android, the app is called Talk to Deaf Grandma.)

Many times hearing aids need to be removed for various medical tests. These apps are helpful in these situations as well.

The last time my mom was in the hospital the staff put a note on the door that my mom was hard of hearing and I think this was helpful in letting the staff know what to expect when approaching her.

While HHF works on its various research initiatives it might also be worthwhile to work concurrently on further developing and improving speech recognition apps like those I’ve mentioned that can help people today. It would also be helpful if you could publish a list of the various organizations that are

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working to improve communication for the hard of hearing in hospital and other locations (airports, train stations, theaters, etc.) so the community can check other resources for currently available means of assistance.

Thank you for all the work you are doing!

Lisa M. New York

dear editor: I read the article about communication difficulties in healthcare settings. Do you realize that almost everyone who walks into the hospital carries a support system, their smartphone, where they can use a voice recognition app? The one that I use is Live Caption.

I recently came down with the flu even though I had the shot and spent a week in the hospital. The app was invaluable. Even with the hospital personnel having to wear face masks, with the app I was able to read and understand everything. In fact some of the hospital staff wanted to get the app themselves for their phones. I use it everywhere—doctor’s office visits, one-on-one situations, and even conversations with my wife. Just today I used it to converse with the service tech in understanding what had to be done on my car.

Merv Daniels Florida

from the editor: Thank you to our readers who let us know about their favorite livecaptioning apps; InnoCaption and Otter.ai also earn praise. It is fortunate that tech giants like Google, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft are all working to continually improve voice recognition in their products for the general public, as this also benefits captioning efforts for those with and without hearing loss. Hearing loops remain one of the best ways for those with telecoil-enabled hearing devices to receive sound directly into their ears. Check Loop Finder (loopfinder.com) for a list of looped public spaces. To learn about the promise of transparent face masks to help improve communication, see page 24.

dear editor: I am an otolaryngologist at the Cleveland Clinic, and I receive your Hearing Health magazine. I employ many strategies to encourage those who need hearing aids but who are resistant to them to give them a try. In my experience mostly it is older people who are resistant. I once gave a talk to caretakers of women titled, “Why Your Mother Won’t Get Hearing Aids.” I found the article in the Summer 2019 issue, “My First 48 Hours With Hearing Aids” by Adam Felman [originally published on Medical News Today], powerful and compelling and will share it with my colleagues and patients.

Tom I. Abelson, M.D. Medical Director Beachwood Family Health & Surgery Center Cleveland Clinic

dear editor: I would like to comment on the Summer 2019 “Meet the Researcher” column about Babak Vazifehkhahghaffari, Ph.D. [a 2018 Emerging Research Grants recipient funded by the Children’s Hearing Institute].

The very first paragraph of “In His Words” really struck me as I have a cochlear implant that goes back to 1988 with upgrades to the current N6 processor (unilateral… I am deaf in my other ear). He mentions that perceiving pitch and music and understanding speech in the presence of reverberation, multiple speakers, or background noise remains very limited for those using cochlear implants.

Those three words—“remains very limited”—are very reassuring to me because after all these years I still have trouble hearing in many venues. Hopefully in time his research into a solution will produce a vast means of understanding speech for the millions of cochlear implant users.

Sarah Hodge Colorado

We always appreciate feedback from our community of readers. Letters are edited for length and clarity. Please email comments to editor@hhf.org.

Hearing Health Foundation (HHF) improves the lives of people with hearing loss and related conditions by funding research, connecting researchers, publicizing new findings, raising awareness about hearing loss, and promoting hearing health.

Complex and interconnected, hearing loss and its variants impact speech processing, brain function, cognition, interpersonal relationships, psychological well-being, and quality of life. HHF’s advances in one aspect or disease-specific area of hearing often benefit many others, creating pathways to better prevention methods, treatments, and cures .

Fundamental studies of inner ear hair cell function may shed light on these mechanisms: how hearing loss occurs, how balance is disturbed, how tinnitus is generated, how the brain processes sound and speech, and how cognitive decline accelerates. As a consequence, advancing knowledge in one area of research benefits many related areas and promotes novel therapies.

Breakthroughs in understanding sensorineural hearing loss also enlighten studies on tinnitus, hyperacusis, and auditory processing disorders because the biological systems that are involved— the inner ear, the brainstem, and parts of the brain such as the auditory cortex—are shared.

Developing new means to deliver therapeutic drugs to the inner ear across the blood-labyrinth barrier may lead to discoveries about that barrier that help scientists prevent damage to hearing as a side effect of other drugs (ototoxicity) or of infection.

Work on the role of neural circuits in the auditory processing of speech may improve our understanding of hyperacusis, as these same neural circuits play a role in the brain’s sensitivity to sound.

Discovering how to regenerate inner ear hair cells to restore hearing may also help medical researchers and clinicians treat tinnitus, which is often caused by these hair cells “mis-signaling” the brain.