Why You Should Visit a Hearing Care Professional feat. Dr. Sara Burdak | Chief Audiology Officer at Starkey

About the Hearing Matters Podcast
 
The Hearing Matters Podcast discusses hearing technology (more commonly known as hearing aids), best practices, and a growing national epidemic - Hearing Loss. The show is hosted by father and son, Blaise Delfino, M.S. – HIS, and Dr. Gregory Delfino, Au.D., CCC-A, who treat patients at Audiology Services in Bethlehem and Nazareth, PA. 

On this episode, Blaise Delfino talks with Dr. Sarah Burdak, Chief Audiology Officer at Starkey Hearing.

A Quarter Century of Care

Dr. Burdak has been an audiologist for more than 25 years. She had chronic ear infections as a child and eventually had hearing loss in her left ear. That’s what led her to the field. She loves the combination of science and patient care. She says no two patients and no two hearing losses are the same. 

Turning Ideas into Products 

Dr. Burdak works primarily in research and development. She gets input from patients on what they need and translates that into meaningful products that serve real problems that people with hearing loss are experiencing. She particularly likes working with veterans. The most common service-related health problems of veterans are tinnitus followed by hearing loss. “Starkey is changing the dynamics of hearing technology by making devices that people actually want to wear.

Educating the Public

Most people wait for seven to ten years before seeking help for a hearing loss. The stigma associated with wearing hearing aids is a large part of the problem. They are no longer the large, ugly devices that no one wants to wear. Starkey focuses on getting the message out that hearing aids are now small with state-of-the-art technology. The company has the newest videos on the internet and works with other media outlets to let people know all the advantages of the latest hearing technology. 

The Benefit of Telehealth

Dr. Burdak says COVID-19 taught hearing healthcare providers that telehealth is no longer a convenience, but a necessary part of the practice of audiology. She says research has shown that one in three people experiencing hearing loss would have addressed it sooner if telehealth had been available. It is also important for elderly people, those who may not have transportation and for caregivers who have jobs in addition to caring for loved ones. She stresses however that initial appointments must be done in person.

Helping Vets

Dr. Burdak says veterans need state-of-the-art technology with all the accessories possible. Besides tinnitus and hearing loss, many vets suffer from other maladies including PTSD. They have a greater incidence of cognitive and memory impairments, chronic pain, fatigue, depression, anxiety, and vision problems. It is important the veterans and their families learn about all of the technology available to them. 

OTC vs. Audiology-issued Hearing Aids 

Dr. Burdak says it’s imperative that people with hearing loss do not buy over-the-counter hearing instruments but see a hearing healthcare provider. Hearing aids are a medical device that need to be fitted by a professional. Hearing loss can be caused by medical conditions that could result in total hearing loss if not addressed. OTC hearing aids may have unintended consequences that can make a person’s hearing wo

Transcript

Blaise Delfino: 0:06

You're tuned in to the Hearing Matters Podcast with Dr. Gregory Delfino and Blaise Delfino of Audiology Services and Fader Plugs. The show that discusses hearing technology, best practices and a growing national epidemic; hearing loss. On this episode we have Dr. Sarah Burdak. She is the Chief Audiology Officer at Starkey Hearing Technologies, Dr. Burdock, welcome to the show.

Dr. Sara Burdak: 0:33

Oh, thank you so much. I'm really excited to be here. And I think this is going to be a lot of fun talking about something I'm so passionate about.

Blaise Delfino: 0:41

We are so excited and so grateful to have you on the show. Prior to this episode, we were just talking about when I first had the opportunity to meet you, I was a younger clinician, and just the opportunity to learn from you and other thought leaders in the industry at such a young age. I consider myself incredibly blessed for that opportunity. Dr. Burdak, you have been a part of the Starkey hearing family since 1999. During this time, you have helped 1000s of individuals on their hearing journey. What inspired you to become an audiologist?

Dr. Sara Burdak: 1:18

25 years going on 26. And I will say one of the things that you hear so often as everybody has a story, nobody usually gets into audiology lightly. And I mean that so oftentimes they will say they've had somebody with hearing loss, or they've grown up like you in a family that knows this profession in this industry. And I'm fairly similar that way, I had chronic ear infections and went through the whole process of getting tubes and all of the different things. But I logged a lot of hours at an ENT practice and at the audiology office and the sound booth was not foreign to me. And with that, ended up with a little bit of hearing loss in my left ear. And so because of that, I feel like I was in a rare situation to know what audiology is. And that's part of the battle when you're going into college and thinking about what is it that you want to do. But again, most people will tell you they love, in this profession, the blend of science of research, but importantly of caring. And that's really why I'm so into what I do from the education perspective, because you can't be an audiologist in this profession if you don't care. And it is all about hearing better. But that's not easy to work with all of the patients that we do. No two patients are the same. No two hearing losses are the same. So you have to really care to do

Blaise Delfino: 2:57

When you say that no to hearing losses are what you do the same. I would just love to expand on that because you could have a patient that has the same hearing loss and fit them with the same hearing technology. And they're going to perceive sound so differently. Because when we treat hearing loss, you're not necessarily treating the ear, you're treating the brain. The goal of the hearing aid is to decrease listening effort and increase speech understanding and intelligibility. It's not to make everything louder, by any means. Dr. Burdak, you are responsible for developing and aligning Starkey's global audiology strategy as it relates to education and training programs. The Department of Veteran Affairs which you discussed, during your first Starkey soundbite and customer and industry relations, what does a day in the life of Dr. Burdak look like? Because you wear so many essential hats.

Dr. Sara Burdak: 3:53

I love that question. I really do. Because one of the things that I talk often about is the role of how do we engage with audiology students. And so often, they're only seeing the clinical side of things. And there is so much more that in audiology that I started out again, many years ago, I had no idea what I could do and what the potential was in all of the opportunities. So it's really, really been amazing because everything I'm working on is obviously about innovation and having effective and easy technology in the hands of the professional and the patient. So it is all about hearing better and living better. But of course I think that there's so much more to that I loved patient care, but in my current role, I can get input from patients from professionals. I can get that input into research and development, we can really make meaningful products that are solving the real problems, you know, for both of those audiences and I Think of what we're doing within the VA. I love the fact that veterans get our highest level of technology. But a critical area of focus has been also with the number one and two service related injuries are tinnitus and hearing loss. So we take it really seriously to make sure that we're solving these problems, because people really come to a professional to hear better. So that's always job one, we have to pursue that. But one of the areas that I love to think about and again, talking to audiology students is how we're changing the dynamics of trying to make devices that people actually want to wear,

Blaise Delfino: 5:43

Not wear them in the drawer.

Dr. Sara Burdak: 5:44

Not wear them in the drawer, the ITD style hearing aids, the in the drawer. So it's critically important, you know, I think we have to always look at ways to help motivate the profession, how do they have the tools, the technology, everything that they need to provide an exceptional patient experience? You know, one of the things I always say is our mission here at Starkey is to serve our customers better than anyone else. But at the end of the day, that's so that they can serve their patients better than anyone else. Oh my gosh, I love talking about this topic. I feel like

Blaise Delfino: 6:15

I like that a lot. We were discussing this with Dr. Archelle, and we talked about patient experience and our goal at Audiology Services. But even our life goal, Dr. Burdak is everyone we come in contact with, we want them to leave our office or leave our presence feeling fulfilled, like I am so happy I came in contact with Dr. Burdak today. Dr. Burdak, we've connected on social media. And in a recent social media post, you reported, quote, "people with hearing loss unnecessarily wait to treat it, because of a persisting stigma around hearing aids. The media can help change this by showing what modern hearing technology looks like." Please tell us more. everything you're bringing up The floor is yours

Dr. Sara Burdak: 7:07

Is right here, because it is all about education. And you were mentioning that then taking advantage of again, if a patient finds you, we all have to be very, very good about making sure they leave with hearing help. And it's because it takes them a long time sometimes to take action, right? We know the statistics are on average, people are still waiting seven, if not 10 years to do something about it. And I feel like the stigma associated with hearing aids is a big part of that. And we do a lot in the education space. We are now doing a lot even with the media space and saying what can we provide them? How do we provide better tools to show that hearing aids have changed, they are not these massive beige horrible things that nobody wants to wear

Blaise Delfino: 8:05

18 wheelers behind your ears.

Dr. Sara Burdak: 8:08

I know they are elegant, they are discreet. I mean, I they're stylish, they're they're designed to be worn all day, everyday comfortably. And the technology that's packed in these make it so that again, you mentioned already that, yes, it's always been all about audibility and intelligibility. But now it's about comfort and clarity. It's about giving the patient some tools in their own environments like AI. And what we're doing with our latest technology and Evolve AI is putting some of that in the hands of the patient, you know, putting that at their fingertips. So I feel like we're getting a lot of progress in this area of educating and changing the stigma my kids who have normal hearing wanna wear our hearing aids. So I think that is awesome. And it's changing that dynamic. But we need the media to really be part of this and not showing, again, dated technology from 20-30 years ago. So we've really tried to make it easy. We have updated video files, they are free of any branding or labels and free to use. So how amazing would that be if people start to see what we have in custom technologies, start to see that these really can be more invisible solutions and really take action and not wait so long to get the help they need.

Blaise Delfino: 9:37

And if there was ever a point in time where the media needs to work with our industry, it is absolutely now because there are more individuals with hearing loss than there are hearing care professionals and relaying the correct and accurate information because Brandon Sawalich, CEO of Starkey, recently released a social media post as well, reporting the same media needs to do much better because you are releasing photos from like 30 years ago. That's not what hearing aids look like. Like we don't use tripods anymore. We can digitally program these hearing aids. So I love that, of course, Starkey is at the forefront of raising awareness of what comfort and stylish hearing care looks like. And we want to ensure here at Hearing Matters Podcast that we are getting that message out as well. Dr. Burdak, as the hearing healthcare industry really continues to evolve, no pun intended, providers definitely need to ensure that they're doing everything that they can to remain accessible to patients. And one solution that we just discussed with Dr. Faber is telehealth. And a few weeks ago, few of you and your colleagues actually discussed this topic at a Starkey students series, which was really cool to see really awesome. Why should hearing care providers begin to implement telehealth?

Dr. Sara Burdak: 11:46

Well, I think the whole dynamics of health care have changed. And they were already changing before the pandemic. And one of the things that I'd like to see is audiologists and hearing healthcare specialists being earlier adopters of technology.

Blaise Delfino: 12:02

We will copy and paste that same in again. Yes. Tell us more about that, please. Yeah,

Dr. Sara Burdak: 12:08

I mean, I think that telehealth space is critical. And if anything I hate to say this sometimes, but it's very true is COVID-19 taught convenience, yes, and convenience and telehealth. But even what we saw with doing curbside clean, and checks and all of these different things that should have them become best practices and don't need to go away now that we've been able to see patients face to face. So I do think that's critically important. We have been enhancing everything that we're doing in the telehealth space that was part of the students session that you were talking about. Because now we're looking at being able to do really see to audiometry, all the way through programming as well as verification, because we do have to meet the patient where they are. That's critically critically important. And I think it's super fascinating to me, we have a number of white papers on our website that showed in the studies that we were doing one in three participants said they would have taken action earlier, if they were able to do it through a telehealth consultation. That's pretty critical when we're thinking about accessibility. And people willing to do something about it. You know, that's critical. So we call our program hearing care anywhere. And the other thing that I always focus on here is yes, the dynamics of aging are changing. And it's critically important for everybody then to consider what's going on in the caregiver space. Because so often those are the people that maybe a telehealth experience matters most to because they might be caring for, again, a mother or a father in those types of things, then they're making decisions around how they're going to get somebody to the next appointment. How are they going to manage this health care of their loved one in their day to day lives? So this focus on the services is really key, but also remembering that sometimes that convenience is for somebody other than the patient.

Blaise Delfino: 14:14

Yes. And to dovetail off that and echo you, Dr. Faber and I were, of course, discussing a little bit about telehealth. And now that of course after conducting real ear measurement, because you never want to implement telehealth for a first fitting that is definitely not why you do telehealth. But let's just say their final follow up and you can now make adjustments for this patient in their natural environment, which is essential and that is so cool to be able to do for lack of a better term.

Dr. Sara Burdak: 14:45

It's so essential. I laugh. I have stories from way back when that I've had patients that have had trouble in their car, which is always a tough situation. When I lived in Missouri, right? These patients would come in and say I can't hear when I go to breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Nobody can can hear but there are times I was with my laptop with all the cables and the chords and all of this stuff. And I would go to these environments Cracker Barrel with the I was I was with these patients. Well, I think that's what's so fun about the technology today is we do have more tools in the hands of the patient, that they can customize the settings we have AI we have pattern recognition and machine learning. I mean that's what's so impressive to me. So we talk about that as friendly AI because one of the The things that I think we need to educate patients on so often when I talk to them, they'll come in and say, I don't need any of that. I don't need any of this fancy stuff. But they do. I don't need the Bluetooth, they don't need the Bluetooth, I don't need this AI thing. And that's why I said, but they do. And it's because the intention of all of these tools is that they don't even have to engage with the technology, it actually makes it a whole lot easier for them. Because these decisions are being made. And then they can pick and choose do they want to use the app or not? Do they want to add an accessory or not. But by doing all of this work with automation, that is the intention that they don't have to choose different memories. They don't have to fumble with anything. It makes it that easy for them to work with, you know.

Blaise Delfino: 16:41

Of course, the buzzword is accessibility. For providers to ensure that you are yourself being accessible to your patients. One way to do that is to implement telehealth, how nice would it feel for our patients to know that if they have an issue with their hearing aid, and maybe transportation is a challenge for them, but they have an iPhone or an Android and a Wi Fi connection? And we can schedule a remote programming appointment that has to sort of ease any stress or anxiety from them, absolutely. And Dr. Burdak, we use Sycle.net for our patient based system, and we have created remote programming session because of course you need an appointment. It's not just like let's check in and FaceTime here. But it's so essential. I believe you're absolutely correct in saying that COVID forced us to become comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Dr. Sara Burdak: 17:33

We say that often at Starkey. So we have to embrace it, everybody's embracing it. That's really something that will continue to expand and grow. I personally think of your own health care when I look for new physicians and I see that they do telehealth services. That is a total plus Yes. And I think great, that's fantastic. If they're willing to do that for things where you can I get that snap for everything. But I love the fact that you have that just front and center as a service because it is critically important. And I do agree with you that having the protocols in place to be able to effectively see patients with telehealth options is really cool to see all of the variety and working with professionals and how they're getting that fully integrated. There's all sorts of options. You know, it doesn't need to be one size fits all

Blaise Delfino: 18:29

Correct, Dr. Burdak, at our practice, we participate with LHI. And we've treated and tested many veterans. On the first episode of the Starkey Bites podcast you and Dr. Faber discussed the importance of veteran health care and Starkey's cutting edge technology, what is being done behind the scenes to you know, to ensure that these veterans are receiving first class hearing health care.

Dr. Sara Burdak: 18:56

I think one of the important takeaways from all of this and that question is that working with the VA veterans have access to the highest and technology levels. And that's really critical. So the things that we've been talking about the state of the art, AI and machine learning, and all of the accessories and everything they have access to that. And I think that really makes a meaningful difference. I did mention that, again, tinnitus is the number one service related injury followed by hearing loss. And one of the things that we don't often realize is that most of those types of wounds are invisible. And we have to pay attention then to other areas. And when I think about what we're doing with tap gestures, or voice commands, and all of these other areas with our intelligent assistants, and this health, mobile technology, there's much more to it with these invisible wounds. And I think about that it isn't just tinnitus and hearing loss, it's PTSD. They have a greater incident of cognitive and memory impairments, chronic pain, fatigue, you know, Vision concerns. So everything that we're doing is always focusing on the broader aspects of usability and accessibility. And that becomes really key for veterans and really for anyone because when we talk about accessibility and vision issues, and how are we getting with our intelligent assistance, things like being able to stream you know the reading programs right directly through the hearing aides incredible. Those are all really, really valuable tools or thinking about where we're at, again, with dexterity or numbness in your fingertips. And all of these things. And having these user friendly controls is something that we're always focused on. And I think the veteran population brings all of that front and center because really, they do have a greater risk for depression, anxiety, other mental health issues. It's not an easy job. And I have the most respect for the clinicians like yourself that are working with the veteran population, because of all of those things. So to me, we have to continue it's still about education, and making sure that veterans their loved ones, their family members know that these options exist, and that they can get treatment and get the support that they need.

Blaise Delfino: 21:45

Dr. Burdak earlier in this episode, we had discussed hearing health care more so being on the defense because there's been so many threats. And at Starkey, of course, you say that disruption does breed innovation. But unfortunately, most individuals wait about seven to 10 years before they do anything about their hearing loss from the time that they suspect that they have a hearing loss, they will wait seven to 10 years. And could it be because of the stigma more so And most likely, it's because of the stigma tied to well, if I wear hearing aids, it's going to make me look older. They're not stylish, and they're not discreet because I see this big clunking thing of a hearing aid on Facebook, which is so inaccurate, they are so tiny and they are invisible. Dr. Burdak share with us the importance of visiting a hearing healthcare provider, why must an audiologist or hearing care professional be a part of the equation when it comes to hearing aid fittings?

Dr. Sara Burdak: 22:44

Well, we can agree that hearing aids are medical devices. And we have to make sure that we're always thinking about the safety of the patient. I actually have two recent examples of friends who are my age who had more of a sudden hearing loss, they have an asymmetry that is a red flag. And I keep thinking about these two individuals would probably be candidates who would have thought, oh, my gosh, I'll go try something maybe over the counter, or is there a piece app that I can try? And had they done that these asymmetries some of the other flags and the overall medical care and treatment might not have been caught? And so really at its core, that's why I think hearing health care professionals have to be included. This is medical technology. And with what's going on in our industry today, I do think the organizations that got together to respond to OTC with HIA and triple A and IHS and ASHA did a really good job of defining what we think the safety metrics should be. And that was really looking at an output of 110 decibels and a gain of 25 decibels. I mean, that is the science behind really what goes into a hearing aid that could support somebody with their own perceived mild to moderate loss, which I think it's really hard to do for somebody to say how much hearing loss I have or how loud it should be. Yes. So there are some concerns with what's going on. Right. We're in this response period right now to the FDA, because the requirements that came out and the initial proposal are something that could be of concern, because the requirements really could fit somebody that has more of a severe to profound hearing loss. Which is scary. So I think that there are some unintended consequences, potentially brewing. And that was not something that has truly been thought through. So we have to keep the healthcare professionals including audiologist and those that are working directly with hearing aids and amplification into the mix.

Blaise Delfino: 25:20

You're tuned in to the Hearing Matters Podcast with Dr. Gregory Delfino, and Blaise Delfino of Audiology Services and Fader Plugs. On this episode, we welcome Dr. Sara Burdak, Chief Audiology Officer at Starkey hearing. Until next time, hear life's story.