Modern Hearing Aids & Technology: What’s Changed and How to Choose

For over a decade, I worked as a senior audiologist at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Most of my patients were there for hearing care during or after cancer treatment. Chemotherapy and radiation can damage hearing. My job was to help them.

But over time, I noticed something I couldn’t explain. Some of my patients were also struggling with their memory and attention. Others couldn’t focus. Some had trouble finding the right words during our visits. It was not just hearing loss. Something more important — a quality-of-life component — was going on.

I started asking more questions. I read the research. What I learned surprised me: hearing loss and cognitive decline are deeply connected. But it gets more complicated. Some of my patients also had cognitive decline as a side effect of chemotherapy — what doctors call “chemo-brain.”

I realized that just treating hearing loss may not be enough to address the cognitive component. Whether the decline was related to hearing loss, side effects from chemotherapy, or a combination of both — patients needed a more complete approach.

Two paths to the same problem

In my clinical work, I saw two distinct groups of patients experiencing cognitive difficulties. Understanding the difference is important, because it affects how care should be delivered.

Both groups shared similar symptoms: brain fog, trouble concentrating, difficulty following conversations. But the causes were different — and so the care needed to be different. A hearing aid can help with sound. It cannot, on its own, rebuild the brain’s ability to focus, remember, or process language clearly.

I wanted to do something about it. I began thinking about a new kind of care — one that looked at hearing and brain health at the same time. But I didn’t have a full picture yet. I was a clinician observing a pattern from the outside.

Then COVID hit.

In 2020, I got COVID. It was a tough one — but what came after was worse. I developed what doctors now call long COVID. For months, I lived with symptoms I had only heard about from patients over the years.

My brain felt foggy. I’d walk into a room and forget why I was there. I struggled to find simple words — words I had used my whole life. Intermittently, I couldn’t focus. It started to frustrate me. I felt like I was watching my own mind slow down.

For the first time, I understood brain fog from the inside. I understood the fear — the worry that maybe this was how I’d feel forever. I understood why my patients sometimes seemed distant, or why they asked me to repeat things. It wasn’t just their hearing or their hearing aids. It was their brains and cognitive functions.

The recovery

I knew I couldn’t just wait and hope. I started studying how to help my own brain heal. I used various tablet-based cognitive assessment tools to measure where I was starting from. I joined a computer-based brain health training program. I practiced memory exercises, attention training, and daily habits designed to rebuild focus. I started practicing mindfulness, guided by various mobile apps.

Slowly, I improved. The fog lifted. My word-finding came back. The scores on my cognitive tests showed real, measurable recovery.

I have to be honest: it was not 100% recovery. From time to time, I still use brain health training programs. Brain health is a broader term — it is not just limited to hearing loss or chemo-brain. There are many more components that can affect our cognitive function, including memory, attention, and executive functions.

And sitting with that recovery, an idea started taking shape.

A new kind of clinic

If brain health training could help me, it could help my patients too — especially the ones with hearing loss, with or without a history of chemotherapy, who were showing signs of cognitive decline. But most hearing clinics may not be designed to address brain health. They test your ears. They fit a hearing aid. If there is cognitive decline, hearing aids alone may not be enough to improve cognitive function.

That model was never going to be enough for the patients I cared about most. They needed something more complete.

Founding AUDICOG

I founded AUDICOG Hearing & Brain Health Institute in Bellaire, Texas to be that missing clinic. The name comes from two words: “audi” for hearing and “cog” for cognition. It’s a place where we treat both together, because the evidence — and my own experience — told me they belong together.

At AUDICOG, every patient gets a full hearing evaluation. But when it’s right for them, we go further. We offer cognitive assessment. We look at how hearing affects daily life — work, family, relationships, sleep, mood. We build a care plan around the whole person, not just the ears.

What makes this different

• Hearing tests that go beyond the standard — including how well you hear speech in noisy places.
• Cognitive assessment when clinically appropriate, to catch memory or attention changes early.
• Quality-of-life assessments that understand how hearing affects your day.
• Care plans built around your goals — not a set of products.
• Unhurried, one-on-one visits with a clinician who has walked this path himself.

A personal promise

Every patient who walks into AUDICOG is met by someone who knows what brain fog feels like. I know what it’s like to be afraid of losing yourself. And I know that good care, offered at the right time, can change everything.

I cannot guarantee that we can cure cognitive decline. But we can support improvement using FDA-approved, validated tools. That’s a meaningful difference — and it’s the foundation of everything we do at AUDICOG.

Rajarshi Pratihar, AuD, MHA, MBA

Founder & Chief Audiologist · AUDICOG

Licensed audiologist with more than 20 years of experience. Former Director of Audiology at UTHealth Houston and Senior Audiologist at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

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