Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia - What is Hearing Hygiene?

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia – What is Hearing Hygiene?

Posted May 26, 2022

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia is an experienced audiologist who has experience in medical devices, employee training, and general sales. She is the Director of Education and Training-West Region.

Dr. Sasaki-Miraglia previously worked as an audiologist at the Mayo Clinic and as the Senior Technical Trainer at Phonak. She received her doctorate in audiology from Salus University.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia’s personal introduction to audiology
The prime message most people should know about hearing loss
Educating people on tinnitus and its early signs
New technology in hearing assistance
How is data used to accurately adjust hearing technology?
Current campaigns for hearing issues

In this episode…

We were all taught from a young age to brush our teeth as a basic part of hygiene. There are clear benefits to preserving your teeth and consequences when they are neglected. However, this same mentality is rarely shown towards our own hearing. It’s only once we’ve experienced hearing loss that we attempt to reverse the damage and by then it’s too late. So how do you help people prevent hearing loss?

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia has worked in audiology, hearing education, and healthcare. She sees the issue as similar to other hygiene and deserving of the same attention. This includes regular check-ups, protective measures, and increased awareness. She has joined the movement to help others preserve their hearing and explains the best ways to do so.

Dr. Mark Syms invites Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia, Director of Education and Training-West Region, on this episode of the ListenUp! Podcast to talk about what hearing hygiene looks like in practice. They discuss the current issues in hearing healthcare and the campaigns that have been started to counteract them. They also touch on Dr. Sasaki-Miraglia’s career and her perspective on hearing health.

Resources mentioned in this episode

Sponsor for this episode…

This episode is brought to you by the Arizona Hearing Center.

The Arizona Hearing Center is a cutting-edge hearing care facility providing comprehensive, family-focused care. Approximately 36 million Americans suffer from some sort of hearing loss, more than half of whom are younger than the age of 65. That’s why the team at the Arizona Hearing Center is focused on providing the highest-quality care using innovative technologies and inclusive treatment plans.

As the Founder of the Arizona Hearing Center, D r. Mark Syms is passionate about helping patients effectively treat their hearing loss so that they can stay connected with their family and friends and remain independent. He knows first-hand how hearing loss can impact social connection and effective communication. By relying on three core values—empathy, education, and excellence—Dr. Syms and his team of hearing loss experts are transforming the lives of patients.

So what are you waiting for? Stop missing out on the conversation and start improving your quality of life today!

To learn more about the Arizona Hearing Center, visit https://www.azhear.com/ or call us at 602-307-9919. We don’t sell hearing aids—we treat your hearing loss.

Episode Transcript

Intro 0:04

Welcome to the ListenUp! Podcast where we explore hearing loss, communication, connections and health.

Dr. Mark Syms 0:10

Hi, everybody, Dr. Mark Syms here, I’m the host of the ListenUp! Podcast where I feature top leaders in health care. This episode is brought to you by Listen Up Hearing Center, I help patients to effectively treat their hearing loss so they can remain better connected with their friends and family and remain independent. The reason I’m so passionate about hearing loss is because I lost my brother Robbie twice, first to the hearing loss from the radiation to his brain tumor and then later to complications from that brain tumor. I’m an e m e t, I only treat yours I’ve performed over 10,000 year surgeries and treated many more with hearing loss. I am the founder of listen up Hearing Center and I’ve also written a book of the same name. Listen Up: A Physician’s Guide to Effectively Treating Your Hearing Loss. If you want to learn more about it. Go to www.listenuphearing.com I’m really excited about today’s guest. Today’s guest is Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia Yeah, that’s right no G. She is the Director for education and training the West Region Widex, USA. She completed a doubler bachelor’s degree in audiology and speech language pathology University of North Carolina and has a doctorate and a master’s degree in audiology from Salus University. She has spent the past 18 years in her career working for a global hearing device manufacturers a manager of Education and Training Manager of audiology technical support and sales support and practice management. She She is proud to be an audiologist for almost two decades. Her past positions include a clinical audiologist at Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale right around the corner from me and in audiology private practice. She’s a frequent guest lecturer at ad programs and provides public outreach for hearing healthcare and presents it local and national meetings and she appears on podcast. Jodie was born and raised in Kona, Hawaii is an avid spam eater and enjoys living in Southern California with her family and her golden retriever. Rhett, a God so much. Thank you so much for coming on here.

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 2:06

Thanks, Mark.

Dr. Mark Syms 2:07

So I want to tell you I am a consumer of Spam musubi I lived in Hawaii for seven years so not not born and raised but very familiar with the beautiful islands and

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 2:17

You’re part of the club. You’re part of the Hawaii club and if you’re indoctrinated in the spammers

Dr. Mark Syms 2:22

Beautiful place great to visit I fortunately don’t get there enough. Yeah. So tell me about your so grew up in Kona, Hawaii, rural how’d you end up deciding to become an audiologist this will be an interesting story.

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 2:35

You know, I think similar to you, right hearing loss hit really home close home to my family. My grandfather had hearing loss growing up so to my great grandmother who came over from Japan before Hawaii was a 50th state. I always remember really big btw on the back of my great grandma’s head, and always wondering, like, gosh, there must be something better than this, right? Like if we can have. Right, right, right. And so, you know, little did I know when I went to school in Colorado as an undergrad to communication disorders as a class, I was like, I kind of like this kind of speech and hearing thing. They like most audiologists, we some many of us started in the speech path sort of pathway realized, you know, we really liked the ears, the hearing the balance. And once I’d be you know, started my studies as audiologist after going into grad school, my grandfather had always had hearing loss. My grandfather actually was a band instructor in Hawaii, lost his hearing over time, probably from a lot of noise exposure back then, you know, instructing the band in a big cavernous type of environment. My dad is a is a high school woodshop teacher never wore hearing protection, avid hunter, so and then my mom had mom’s mom, something along the lines of mumps or measles when she was a kid had unilateral hearing loss. You know, whenever we would be a noise, my mom would always say, Come on my better side, you know, I always thought like mom’s had like a better ear, not noise, not knowing that my mom actually didn’t have a usable ear on one side. And so I really do believe audiology picked me it’s very personal to me after you know, this many decades, I still am very passionate about, you know, hearing conservation, you know, hearing loss, you know, just hearing advocacy. And then now hopefully leading into, you know, May, which is better speaking hearing month just an overall awareness by your listeners tuning in to know what to do. And hearing loss is not an old person thing. Hearing loss doesn’t care, your age, your gender, how much money you have in your wallet. Yep, hearing loss. We know how to treat it, obviously, from a clinical perspective you from a medical perspective. And there’s I think there’s so much that we can still do to just educate the public about hearing and hearing loss.

Dr. Mark Syms 4:43

That’s great. So that’s kind of a great roadmap for the things we can talk about. Let’s talk a little bit about hearing conservation and kind of your take on it. I mean, obviously you are keenly aware with a bandleader in the family would walk with shop worker, et cetera, et cetera. So what’s the prime message? right to give to people about those particular issues,

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 5:02

I think the prime message is the fact that like we are born hopefully, if you have, you know, normal anatomical structures, you’re born with a really, really strong hearing balance communication system. And lo and behold, because of noise exposure, which is for most people fully avoidable, or you know, and there’s just a lack of education around that, when you look at some of the studies that are done, you know, with the world, the World Health Organization, worldwide, millions of young people are susceptible to noise induced hearing loss. And a lot of it has to do with education, you know, or not wearing headphones, you know, with a pandemic, I think we all kind of went under headphones, but didn’t realize, wow, we’re on under headphones, eight hours a day. And if you’re gonna crank it up so loud, it’s not healthy for us human beings to be exposed to long levels of higher noise. So just a, you know, general education, I think we all know, hey, don’t read in the dark, hey, don’t read when the lights are low. You know, hey, don’t cross the street without looking for both sides, you know, localization, vision, you know, hey, brush your teeth every night, you know, you don’t want to get cavities. Prevention, and yet hearing is left off. And yet you and I can see you know, unfortunately, see the ramifications when hearing deteriorates how that directly impacts communication, relationships, lifestyle.

Dr. Mark Syms 6:23

The big thing I always tell people is unfortunately, we can’t give it back. Yeah, we lost it. Right? Correct. At this point in time, technology doesn’t make it recoverable. He can rehabilitate it, but we can’t recover it. So everybody has to protect it.

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 6:35

Protect it first. Yep. Protect it first.

Dr. Mark Syms 6:38

Yeah, it’s and you know, where I’m in Arizona, there are a lot of people who like to hunt and shoot. And so you know, there are people even with the noise induced hearing loss who still go but some of them are pretty smart about you know, getting noise cancelling headsets and things like that. So I assume you counsel people on that technology.

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 6:55

Because on that, and just, you know, like summertime, right, everything’s opening back up, everybody wants to go see concerts, everybody wants to go and hear the live music again, in person. You know, if you have to shout to your friend next, you probably a little bit too loud, every most people have some sort of Amazon or you know, that kind of 20 fire or one day delivery, you can buy a musician grade hearing protection, under 20 bucks, you know, you know, donate two days worth of your Starbucks and get yourself some hair protect and stick it in your purse, or sticking on the back of your cell phone with a little holder. And that way when when you do go to a venue you’re prepared because nobody, you know, as much as those little foamy plugs are available. And a lot of the rock concerts and music venues, they cut out so much sound, especially in the high tones. People would rather not wear it and then come out with some music.

Dr. Mark Syms 7:42

So music. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It’s It’s fascinating. I have a son who, who he called me because he his Apple Watch told them he was in too much noise.

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 7:51

Yes, yeah. So now we have all these devices that I can actually monitor how long how loud. But yet, you know, it doesn’t matter if you don’t do anything about it. Right. So in terms of hearing, you know, prevention, or just protecting your hearing for like, good hearing hygiene is what I like to call it, you know, being able to just, you know, get some nice, you know, musician grade plugs, again, 20 bucks or less, and you can still go on and do the fun stuff, but continue to protect your hearing.

Dr. Mark Syms 8:20

Yeah, the amazing thing to me was, he’s in an acapella group. And it was actually the group practices. So just human voice on a continual basis was considered a high enough exposure that he should do something about it. Yeah, I think it’s going to be, you know, heavy metal or gunfire, but it can be continual sound just generated by you know, being around a human activity. Normal human.

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 8:43

Yes. Yeah, once you have activity, and then now because we’re all under headphones for a lot of the day, and we may not notice we’re turning it up turning up as we go. In a lot of times it is too loud. So your weekly dose exceeds quickly, what your what a normal human being is supposed to be exposed to regardless, again, regardless of age, right? I’m sure.

Dr. Mark Syms 9:01

There’s the concept of exposure dose, not just one particular. So like a gunshot is a very short burst of a large amount. And that can be a problem. But lower lot volumes across a cumulative time can also be a problem here. Yes. So and that’s actually one of the nice things about the smart devices is they can actually measure what you’re exposed. Yeah. Yeah. That’s great. And so in terms of your role in terms of professional educator and things, so what are the topics that are, you know, most pressing your peers that these days in terms of what things do they want to learn about?

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 9:34

Yeah, most of the audiologist in our community and hearing care professionals, one is continuation of support tinnitus, I think, you know, over the pandemic, and over the last couple of years of just being around more stressful conditions, people who haven’t been bothered by their tinnitus all of a sudden or tinnitus, you know, whoever

Dr. Mark Syms 9:52

Caribbean I tell people that either

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 9:56

So the challenge is you know, again, education right not freak hanging out, not googling things and like all of a sudden the worst things that could potentially happen come up but you know, seeking a medical professional like yourself on the anti side coming to audiology on our side, getting your hearing checked, you know, explaining what happens with your tinnitus? Is it a sudden onset? Is there something medical we have to look at? Or is there another, you know, side of it, which is more stress, you know, where we can kind of support that with some therapy. A lot of people don’t have hearing loss, but have tinnitus. And sometimes, as I’m sure you’ve seen some cases, right, sometimes the hearing loss doesn’t present itself, but maybe there’s some automatic medical things, you know, maybe an acoustic that slow growing, that the tinnitus is the first you know, thing that we have to, you know, sort of look at or end up testing for. So at the at the very basic thing number one is tinnitus. Number two is is you know, that the sort of impact of mild hearing loss, there’s been so much, you know, research and studies around the fact that with mild hearing loss, untreated, how much your cognitive decline goes up by two fold.

Dr. Mark Syms 11:02

In hearing loss at the lower part of normal?

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 11:04

Yes, yes, or what we call subclinical hearing loss, right? So, quote, unquote, normal on the audiogram. But you know, as audiology students, we would all test each other’s hearing and 20 years ago, wink wink, I had, you know, minus five thresholds. Now, I’m in 1520. And I can tell you that 20 damage shift, yeah, even though it’s normal on the audiogram, I can tell the noise. Now, I can tell with my tolerance and noise. Now, it’s not as long and yet, clinically, I have a normal audiogram. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have trouble hearing a noise or tolerating sound. So I think that you know, what we call Hidden Hearing loss and audiology or subclinical hearing loss, I think those are, you know, more recent topics that have come up with our AAA meeting, the last couple of weeks, I’ve attended a number of online because these patients are coming in, because we’ve been having to wear masks, you take away half the face, and you filter out voices, all of a sudden, a subclinical or a deficit in your hearing becomes sort of amplified right with when you’re wearing a mask.

Dr. Mark Syms 12:09

Yeah. And so those are the topics that are pressing right now.

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 12:13

Yep, I would think those three are the top is, you know, audiologist or hearing care professional who haven’t, you know, formally done more tinnitus, they’re reaching out saying how, you know, this is a need in my community can help me, you know, do this. Second is what do I do with these people who come in with normal audio grams, and obviously, it’s important to them, they took off of work, they wanted to come in and get an evaluation. And so, you know, you know, encouraging teaching, reiterating the importance of hearing and noise testing, with audiologist and hearing healthcare professionals taking out you know, handicap inventories, like the hearing handicap inventory for adults, what is the you know, what is the percentage of detriment that’s happening to my life versus your life, you and I might have the same subclinical audiogram, right? Maybe minus, you know, we went from minus five to now 20 DB thresholds, but my effect because I’m, you know, I’m a mom, I’m a busy professional I live in here in Southern California, if you live in Arizona, we may have different challenges with our quote unquote, hearing levels, even though they’re normal on an audiogram. So how do we look past the audiogram? You know, audio, audio logically? Also, what do we do when there are some cognitive challenges with patients? You know, is there a better technology that we can choose? Is there some accessories that we can encourage patients to use to increase signal to noise ratio? And looking at the bigger picture of that patient’s quality of life? And how do we improve it?

Dr. Mark Syms 13:37

So what kind of a so when you mean, for listeners, it’s it’s enhancement microphones are things that can improve the ability for the person with the hearing technology to get what they’re really trying to get? So what are the type of assistive listening devices people are looking at?

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 13:51

You know, most times, you know, if they’re a hearing device or hearing aid candidate, it is trying to improve the signal to noise ratio. So getting into a style of hearing device that has directional microphones, you know, sometimes people want the little itty bitty but the little itty bitty completely in the canal, it’s only have one microphone, it can only do so much sound separation. So you know, doing something is evaluating the patient’s hearing and noise, figuring out where do they have challenges? And then what type of technology should they be in to support that? There are other cognitive screenings that are available clinically now where we can kind of tap into what is the cognitive reserve of the patient? What is their working memory? How much tolerance do they have in noise? So at Widex, one of our researchers, Dr. Francis Cook developed a six minute clinical test, that hearing care professionals can do that in six minutes that evaluates hearing a noise ability, working memory, and how do you tolerate noise? How long? Because based on Yeah, and based on that would determine you know, one, you know, what, what level should you be in what technology would you need to support your results? And then you know, more importantly, you know, if somebody does have working memory challenges, then what other rehab do we have to introduce in order to strengthen that, because you’re not going to sit there and improve your working memory by watching YouTube. You know, it needs to be this, you know, engaged sort of formal, what we call auditory training therapy. There’s some apps and some remote type of audiological led programs, there’s a program out of wasu called Amptify that they do all rehab training virtually. And so you know, if you live in a little tiny town like mine in Kona, Hawaii, or you’re here in Los Angeles, where I live now, you know, the fact that we have access to the internet, good headsets, computers, laptops, whatever, allows patients to not only potentially get locally they’re hearing treated, but if they don’t have, you know, rehab services nearby, then kind of harnessing tapping into that virtual component. Where where there is that really nice Hybrid Synergy of in person in your local community, and then being able to tap into other virtual professionals across the board.

Dr. Mark Syms 16:04

I think that’s, that’s really great. I mean, you know, the big thing that you’re hitting on is is the brain here connection, right? Yeah, we used to think, Oh, it’s just the audiogram. And we get that better, and everything was better, but how much the brain and the ability to process the information? is such an essential part of communicating effectively?

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 16:19

Yes, absolutely. Isn’t that your thing? Is it a hearing a noise thing? Or is it really higher up? And sometimes it’s all three? Answers? Yes.

Dr. Mark Syms 16:27

I mean, getting getting what you can better however, you can better, right, obviously, you need access to the sound for be able to process it, if it never gets to the brain, you can’t expect the brain to process what it never get.

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 16:42

Exactly. And then now what we’re seeing now, at least from a wider perspective, is, you know, being a little bit ahead of the curve, like, how do we do if you’re going to carry a smartphone as a consumer? How do we leverage that tool, and then link that to your hearing device, because what Widex does believe in is, you know, as much as we want to say the digital chip is going to help you here, we know that it cannot possibly cover every single scenario that people are going to walk into, right. So two years later, my mom’s going to go on a cruise to Alaska, you know, and she’s in that type of environment, she’s probably going to go somewhere, she’s not going to be able to hear the way that she wants to hear. So a wide expert kind of tapping into that whole listening intent dimension, using AI to kind of help that patient in the moment. So when my mom takes a cruise, you know, on Alaska in the next couple of months, she can actually launch an app on our hearing aids, you know, and she can say I’m in a dining room, I’m not able to follow conversations. And in seconds, we can actually harness real user data solution driven, that could help or right then and there.

Dr. Mark Syms 17:44

So is it you give the input of the listening environment? Or based on other people’s adjustments? It kind of figures out what might be the ideal adjustment?

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 17:54

Yep. In seconds. Yep.

Dr. Mark Syms 17:56

That’s really cool. And how does that information get to it gets through the smartphone to the hearing aid using the internet or something of that nature?

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 18:03

Correct? Yep, our app connects to the Widex cloud, you know, patients have to sort of opt in to share their data if they want to. And then you know, at Widex, Denmark, we actually collate that data, 1000s and 1000s of data points, and collect all of those patterns, and then give those types of solutions to patients looking for that similar listening intent. I always kind of joke and say, you know, as a mom, you know, my job is to hear my kids and be alert. But some days, I just want to be comfortable. They just want to do them out. But if I was worried to hear again, they would always assume, right? You need to pick up the speed, you need to.

Dr. Mark Syms 18:41

Theoretically, you could press buttons of what you don’t want to hear. Correct. Correct. Be in the app, but that might be an enhancement to the app, right? Yes, yeah. Okay, I’m gonna turn the kids out for two hours. That’s, that’s fascinating. And so is there a user feedback about the satisfaction of the enhancement?

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 19:01

Yeah, you know, so we actually look at sort of how many people use the data, you know, how often how often they’re using, and if they are, if they are, you know, kind enough to share that with us. And so as we learn patterns, then we continue to update that AI that real time machine learning, and we continue to improve it. So we’re now on our third iteration of that. And what we have found, you know, audiologists and hearing care professionals, and then patients alike are saying, you know, finally, I don’t have to come in on Monday, because something went wrong on Friday night, like we’re not living in the past, and then trying to fix it, you know, today, it allows that impatient empowerment, and it to me, it takes out provider bias, right. I may think I know how to fix it, but I’m not the one with that hearing loss. And I’m not the one in that environment. And I may assume they’re listening attempt is x, but it might be y and z. So instead of guessing, why not let you know other real users provide some solutions for patients. And what we find is that patients will say, you know, I tried it. And yeah, I was able to stay at the family reunion, I was able to stay at the dinner, I was able to stay at the concert that, you know, my tickets are on hold for two years. So it’s been a really nice empowering feature for the patients to know like they can do something about it. It’s not just back on the ACPs.

Dr. Mark Syms 20:24

That I think just the ability to select in and of itself is is a enhanced feature, just the fact that people can have some control over something, they probably oftentimes feel they have little control. Yes, yes. Yeah. I think that that in and of itself will be great. I mean, it’s gonna be fascinating to see where this data takes people,

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 20:42

For sure. For sure, for sure. I know the the other Biggie and I’m sure you see it, too, is, you know, just this impact of minimal hearing loss or mild hearing loss. When you look at some of the data that has been shared with the hearing community, a year and a half ago, a survey came out showing that only 10% of people who have mild hearing loss actually do something about it, or actually, you know, owning a hearing aid, and only 50% of those with moderate hearing loss actually own a hearing device. So we’re missing a lot of those people still, and they’re still kind of hanging out, I don’t know, treading water or, or what, but for some reason, you know, the the movement forward, is there more price options to you know, lower the budgets for people, there’s much more access points. You know, just you know, the what the article mentioned in the hearing review, Carl Strom actually wrote it, but was talking about like sound quality, perhaps being the tipping point, right? If you have mild hearing loss, but you were hearing aid, and it doesn’t sound natural to you, you’re probably not going to be compliant with the program and where the device. So a couple years ago, why they came out with a really cool program called pure sound reduces the digital signal delay, that’s a half a millisecond, that gets rid of what we call the comb filter distortion associated with a lot of the recordings today, and really eliminates echo own voice echo skinniness, you know, things sounding kind of weak and microphonic. And it’ll last Yeah, a lot allows a lot more people with more minimal hearing loss be able to move forward sooner. Because it sounds more like their natural hearing, which is pretty Yeah,

Dr. Mark Syms 22:14

I think that’s important. I think the other issue is, is people don’t know what they don’t hear. Yes. So just awareness of their own hearing loss is a struggle in and of itself. And yeah, you know, I mean, the real answer is people should get their hearing checked, right?

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 22:27

100%. Now you hear I check the hearing and noise too, right? So look at the levels, chances are a lot of them are gonna maybe have quote unquote, a normal audiogram. But hearing a noise checking the hearing and noise ability, what happens when you tax that system? What is that? What is that level? Because you and I even if we had the same audiogram, we may have different hearing noise results?

Dr. Mark Syms 22:47

Yeah, it seems to hearing a noise is a way to kind of flush out those people who are already discussing about struggling, but there are a lot of people who think they have no struggles who do. Yep, yeah. But further demonstrate their problem with hearing in noise. Right, exactly, exactly, please, showing them on the spectrum. And so you know, one of the things you did mention is, is next month, May so this probably be this is the end of April. So this should hopefully be even if it’s not, it’s an important month to month, it may is a better hearing month. And so what’s on tap for that, in terms of the professional side and outreach side?

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 23:20

on top of that is is just really, you know, sort of a global push at understanding, you know, why better speech and hearing is critical, really, to the human race, you know, not only here in the US, but worldwide. You know, by this year, they estimate that over 86 million health care apps will be used. And apps are good, right? Hearables, earpieces are good, but that doesn’t, that doesn’t replace good hearing hygiene, getting that getting that hearing check getting a baseline today, whatever age you are, I think most of us probably haven’t gotten their hearing tested since we were in kindergarten, or maybe you know, going to middle grade. Right, right. Anyway, that’s a screening as well. Right?

Dr. Mark Syms 24:03

So diagnostic, comprehensive diagnostic. Exactly, exactly.

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 24:07

So just getting you know, getting a good baseline, I think may you know, summertime sort of a good time to sort of set that set that reminder on your on your smartphone, you know, get the hearing check, or the next time you get your teeth clean, remind remind yourself, you got to get your ears checked as well, and just start having that as part of, you know, normal on preventative medicine, if you will. And if that’s the case, then people are educated, they have the time to speak with the hearing health professional, they have the time to speak with you on the anti side if they have some, you know, Arrow concerns that could potentially be medically treated. And then they’re within that sort of, you know, I call that the helping bubble of you have your go to for your hearing professionals, and they’d be able to be educated that way.

Dr. Mark Syms 24:51

Yeah. The other comment I’d make about the month is is is not just your hearing, but others right and so one of the other struggles is the spouse with the spouse who has a hearing loss. And so you can use this month to go get your hearing screen with the suggestion of maybe the more resistant spouse can come and get their hearing screened, and is one of the most effective ways to get or evaluate and not screen. But one of the most effective ways to get a resistant spouse into the channel to at least have a discussion about hearing loss.

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 25:20

Yes, yes, for sure. For sure. And, you know, obviously, I think, you know, those of us who are, you know, watching and streaming content, I mean, even on our Widex website, you can actually go on, put some headphones on and do like a screening. So, you know, if there is, you know, access issues for people tuning in and listening in to your, your podcasts, and they say, oh, gosh, the closest professional is 50 miles away, and I don’t drive, you know, just Googling, you know, white X and Googling the hearing, you know, hearing test area, to me is, is better than doing nothing. Right. So do something in may do something in May.

Dr. Mark Syms 25:55

Take some sort of ownership and some sort of action. Yes. Regarding hearing and so that would that would be the call to it. And so are there initiatives throughout the hearing space for this? Are there other things happening or awareness campaigns or anything of that nature?

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 26:10

Yeah, there’s, there’s a number of different initiatives, you know, from from, you know, a very sort of aspects of, you know, pediatric audiology, for awareness there because obviously, for for some kids, right does just because you you got your hearing screened in the hospital doesn’t mean when you get to kindergarten, right, right, still normal, or, you know, once your, your teenager because they again, they’re under headphones, right? They’re blasting their, their, their, their, their air pods, or whatever they’re wearing now, for long periods of time getting their hearing checked, is good, as well. So I think you’ll see some push or some education on pediatric audiology that sort of 18 and under, then you’ll see you know, that the younger population, the the World Health Organization is doing quite a bit of already pushed that I see on LinkedIn and Twitter, social media, kind of where those those kids are. And then, you know, young adults and older, just, you know, just again, another, you know, another reason it’s not because you’re getting older, it’s just because it’s just, it brings awareness for the entire month to focus on Hearing and Communication because without good hearing, it’s really hard to have good communication. Yeah.

Dr. Mark Syms 27:18

Well, this has been great. I mean, the one comment I would say is your passion comes through all the time, and I think it’s awesome. I really admire that. So one question I love to ask guests on the podcast is what what’s your favorite sound good.

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 27:30

My favorite sound and I just heard it last week is just hearing the ocean come in. I was home At home in Kona Hawaii, and that ocean sound is very unique. It’s different than the sound here in California, even though it’s the same Pacific Ocean. So I would say it’s the ocean waves crashing on the Kona beaches of Hawaii brings me back brings me calm and runo even makes me remind myself, you know how important hearing is and that emotional connection? I want people to have.

Dr. Mark Syms 28:01

Yeah, that is great. That is a wonderful sound. I love it, too. So this is Jodi Sasaki Miraglia. She’s the director of education and training for the West Regional Widex. Judy, if people want to get a hold of you, how would they do that?

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 28:14

Yep, they would actually just go to the white X website, there’s a contact information there. Or locally, they’re looking to connect with me. LinkedIn is a great place to find me.

Dr. Mark Syms 28:24

Yeah, ever everything. So this has been great. I appreciate you coming on. This has been some really great information for our listener and I thank you so much for your time.

Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia 28:32

Thanks, Mark. You too.

Outro 28:37

Thanks for tuning in to the ListenUp! Podcast. We’ll see you again next time and be sure to click subscribe to get updates on future episodes.

Arizona Hearing Center, Dr. Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia, Dr. Mark Syms, ListenUp! Podcast, Oticon, Widex