Welcome to Beyond the Decibels, brought to you by Cochlear Americas. Today we are wrapping up our 2-part series on untreated hearing loss. For this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Kevin Zhan who will discuss the importance of hearing health, the new clinical practice guidelines for age-related hearing loss and where wearable tech fits in. We’ll also explore why hearing loss doesn’t just affect your ears—it can impact many aspects of your overall well-being—and why Dr. Zhan is optimistic about the future of hearing health.

To learn more about the Hearing Number, check out these links:

Get Involved - Hearing Number

For Health Professionals - Hearing Number

*Dr. Kevin Zhan is an Assistant Professor of Otology & Neurotology and Lateral Skull Base Surgery at Northwestern Medicine and Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, where he leads the Northwestern Medicine Cochlear Implant Program. His work centers on expanding access to high-quality hearing care and building Northwestern Medicine cochlear implant program.

He trained in Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery at The Ohio State University and completed advanced fellowship training in Otology, Neurotology, and Skull Base Surgery at Washington University in St. Louis. He also completed a dedicated research fellowship in large dataset and outcomes research at the Medical University of South Carolina.

Nationally, he contributes to the American Cochlear Implant Alliance and the Hearing Health Collaborative, and previously chaired the Section for Residents and Fellows within the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery.

If you enjoyed this episode, please press the subscribe button, give us a rating and a review. We’d love to hear from you.

Beyond the Decibels is a podcast brought to you by Cochlear North America. Cochlear is a global leader in implantable hearing solutions, offering innovative products like cochlear implants and bone conduction systems. Cochlear technology helps people of all ages reconnect with sound and live fuller, more connected lives. Learn more at www.cochlear.com

The views of the interviewees in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily represent the view of Cochlear North America and Cochlear Limited.

This material is meant for health professionals – if you’re a consumer please seek advice from your health professional about treatments for hearing loss. Outcomes may vary and a health professional will advise you about the factors which could affect your outcome.

Welcome to another episode of Beyond the Decibels, brought to you by Cochlear North America. This episode is the first of a 2-part series, where we’ll explore the growing number of untreated hearing loss cases in the U.S., the broader health and societal costs and the impact on individual wellbeing. As leading researchers in this space, Dr. Jennifer Deal and Dr. Ashley Nassiri will share insights on hearing loss as a public health issue, its comorbidities and the importance of unified efforts to raise awareness and improve access—especially through the use of a simple, scalable metric: the Hearing Number.

To learn more about the Hearing Number, check out these additional resources:

Hearing Number - Get Involved

Hearing Number - For Professionals

Ashley Nassiri, MD, MBA is an assistant professor of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She is the director of the Cochlear Implant program, and her research focuses on improving access to hearing health care.

Jennifer A. Deal is an Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University, and the Interim Director of the Johns Hopkins Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health, a first-in-kind research center dedicated to training a generation of clinicians and researchers to understand and address the impact of hearing loss on older adults and public health. She leads research dedicated to improving the health and well-being of older adults, with a focus on brain aging, sensory health, and disability across the life-course. She also co-leads the SENSE Network), an international network of researchers building the infrastructure to support research on sensory health and cognitive health and wellbeing in older adults.

If you enjoyed this episode, please press the subscribe button, give us a rating and a review. We’d love to hear from you.

Beyond the Decibels is a podcast brought to you by Cochlear North America. Cochlear is a global leader in implantable hearing solutions, offering innovative products like cochlear implants and bone conduction systems. Cochlear technology helps people of all ages reconnect with sound and live fuller, more connected lives. Learn more at www.cochlear.com

The views of the interviewees in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily represent the view of Cochlear North America and Cochlear Limited.

This material is meant for health professionals – if you’re a consumer please seek advice from your health professional about treatments for hearing loss. Outcomes may vary and a health professional will advise you about the factors which could affect your outcome.

In this episode of Beyond the Decibels, we sit down with Dr. Michael Hoa, neurotologist at MedStar Health and Professor of Otolaryngology at Georgetown University. Dr. Hoa opens up about his unexpected passion for cooking, and dives into the art and science of intraoperative cochlear implant testing. He discusses how rapid advancements in technology are reshaping surgical protocols and shares why lifelong learning remains essential in today’s evolving medical landscape. Dr. Hoa also offers his perspective on the future—hair cell regeneration, gene therapy and what might be possible in the years ahead.

Listen now to hear Dr. Hoa’s full insights and join the conversation shaping tomorrow’s care.

If you enjoyed this episode, please press the subscribe button, give us a rating and a review. We’d love to hear from you.

Beyond the Decibels is a podcast brought to you by Cochlear North America. Cochlear is a global leader in implantable hearing solutions, offering innovative products like cochlear implants and bone conduction systems. Cochlear technology helps people of all ages reconnect with sound and live fuller, more connected lives. Learn more at www.cochlear.com

The views of the interviewees in this podcast are their own and do not necessarily represent the view of Cochlear North America and Cochlear Limited.

This material is meant for health professionals – if you’re a consumer please seek advice from your health professional about treatments for hearing loss. Outcomes may vary and a health professional will advise you about the factors which could affect your outcome.