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Workspace Blogathon, 7:30 PM

When I first saw a presentation on Bluetooth® compatible hearing aids during last year’s CHHA’s annual event in Vancouver, I was pretty excited. Oticon and Phonak were introducing Bluetooth®-compatible hearing aids that you could connect with a streamer and use for cell phone conversations.

One of the biggest problems for Behind-The-Ear Hearing Aid wearers is phone conversation. Because of the way the hearing aid microphone is positioned behind the ear, I needed to place the phone in an awkward position behind the ear to hear better. Another drawback is that when the phone rings, I had to switch the hearing aid from “Normal” to “Tele-coil” (phone) mode and then answer the phone. It takes a few seconds. By that time, the caller may have hung up.

The Bluetooth® streamers with Oticon’s Epoq and Phonak’s Naida models promised something much better. You need to hang the Bluetooth streamer around your neck like this:
The streamer (this one is Phonak’s iCom) is tuned to the hearing aid, and is in turn connected to a blue-tooth cell phone. When there is a call, it rings straight in your ear and all you need to do is press the panel and you speak. No changing the hearing aid settings, no awkward positioning of the phone above your ear.

The streamer cost an extra $500 on top of the hearing aids which were $5000-something for the pair, but I thought it was finally worth it. I was fitted the new Phonak digital hearing aids last December by an Island Hearing Audiologist.

So far, the hearing aids have been working very well, and the quality, I think is better than my previous ones. The iCom streamer has some issues though.

- First, when on the phone, it doesn’t suppress the external noise as the tele-coil does. As a result, speaking over the phone using this iCom streamer works only in quiet situations.
- Also, every time I connect my Nokia cell phone to the streamer, I hear music playing non-stop for a few minutes! The music comes from the cell phone’s audio files, and the streamer somehow causes it to play.

I think Bluetooth® hearing aids are still in infancy, and the technology will evolve.