Happy Holidays from the Phonak Audiology Blog: Top 10 reader favorites of 2025
As 2025 comes to a close, thank you for being part of our Audiology Blog community. Here are ten of this year’s top-read articles, plus a preview of a new ACHIEVE research updates series coming soon.
As we head into the holiday week, I want to pause and say thank you.
Thank you to our readers for showing up each week with a shared commitment to better hearing care. And thank you to our contributing authors around the world, clinicians, researchers, and industry experts, who took the time to translate evidence and innovation into practical insights that can genuinely improve everyday outcomes for clients.
Looking back on 2025, a few themes stood out clearly: making research more usable in the clinic, raising the bar for real-world listening (especially in noise), and keeping person-centered communication at the heart of what we do.
With that in mind, here are 10 Audiology Blog articles from 2025 that captured attention and sparked conversation across our community (in no particular order):
- Hyperacusis treatment: Insights from a 6-month field trial
A group of audiologists, engineers and hearing scientists developed a novel treatment device and protocol that significantly improved participants’ sound sensitivity and quality of life. Link - Exploring AI chatbots in audiology: What do users really think?
Dr. Bec Bennett explores what clients actually want from AI support between appointments, and what clinicians should consider as chat-based tools become more common in hearing care. Link - Social benefits of hearing interventions for older adults: Insights from the ACHIEVE Study
The ACHIEVE team share findings that underscore a simple truth: hearing care is not only about audibility, but also about connection, participation, and quality of life. Link - What does “up to 10.2 dB SNR improvement with Spheric Speech Clarity” really mean?
A clear explanation of why SNR claims can be hard to compare, and what realistic test setups can tell us about meaningful benefit. Link - Practicing patient conversations with Virtual Personas
Dr. Nicky Chong-White introduces an AI-powered training approach designed to help clinicians practice the human side of audiology, building confidence, empathy, and communication skills in realistic scenarios. Link - Special issue on stigma of hearing loss and hearing aids
Dr. Louise Hickson summarizes a special issue exploring the stigma of hearing loss and hearing aids, bringing together the evidence and what it can mean for everyday practice. Link - Spheric Speech Clarity: Findings from PARC field trial
Dr. Elizabeth Stewart shares a real-world perspective on performance, with guided café visits that bring ecological validity to the center of the story. Link - Human in the Loop: Keeping clinicians central to AI in hearing care
This article highlights how empathy, real-world context, and a strong feedback culture help ensure AI supports truly personalized care and strengthens the client journey. Link - TargetTrack: Understanding pediatric fitting and hearing aid usage
A big-data snapshot of pediatric fitting practices and use patterns, and how insights like these can support evidence-informed decisions. Link - A nod and a smile are not understanding: Why teach-back matters in audiology
Dr. Gaby Saunders shares a clinic-ready piece on communication, health literacy, and how teach-back can help patients leave with true understanding. Link
Coming in 2026: Regular ACHIEVE Team research updates on the Blog
As we look ahead to 2026, I’m pleased to share that we will be launching an ongoing Blog series featuring research updates from the ACHIEVE Study team. ACHIEVE is a landmark study of the effect of hearing intervention on brain health in older adults.
In this series, we will highlight newly published findings, key learnings, and practical clinical takeaways, with a focus on what the evidence means for everyday care. Our goal is to keep you informed and support confident, evidence-based conversations with patients and families.
From all of us at the Phonak Audiology Blog, wishing you and yours a happy holiday season and a wonderful start to 2026.
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If you have expertise to share in 2026, please contact Lisa.Bacic@phonak.com.