Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH), in South Korea, has established a “Smart Hearing Loop” system in key areas throughout the hospital to support smoother communication for patients with hearing loss who use cochlear implants or hearing aids.
Due to the nature of hospitals as high-traffic public facilities, background noise often makes it difficult for patients to hear medical consultations or public announcements clearly. Seoul National University Hospital plans to proactively introduce barrier-free infrastructure, which is recently expanding in public facilities, to enhance convenience for hearing-impaired patients increasing due to the aging population and to strengthen its obligation to guarantee medical accessibility for the disabled as a national central hospital.
The newly introduced hearing loop system is an international-standard wireless assistive technology designed to eliminate surrounding noise and deliver only the speaker’s voice with clarity.
When medical staff speak through the microphone, the system converts the speech into a magnetic field signal and transmits it; patients wearing hearing aids or cochlear implants equipped with the ‘T-Mode’ function can hear voices clearly without ambient noise by activating this mode. Additionally, general visitors can also connect to the system using personal wireless earphones or headsets via the ‘Bluetooth AuraCast’ function.
