MEG KALADY, AuD
Giving Back the Gift of Sound
story by JENNIFER BROWN-CARPENTER photos by CHARLOTTE BERKELEY-STANGE
Not unlike most human beings, Meg Kalady, AuD loves to help people. And not unlike most humans, COVID-19 has made it harder to figure out exactly how to do that, especially when offices have shut down. Dr. Meg is working around the hard stuff and figuring out a way to help her clients keep moving forward.
Meg Kalady is a doctor of Audiology . Audiology is a branch of science that studies hearing, balance, and related disorders. Kalady Audiology focuses on hearing, diagnostic, and rehabilitation for those with hearing loss. While Dr. Meg loves her job, this wasn’t the path she initially intended.
Dr. Meg was born and raised in Pennsylvania. When she was growing up, she read a book Light a Penny Candle , and it was about a girl who lost her sight but grew up to be a speech pathologist. That always stayed in the back of her mind. She also had interests in theatre and writing. She went to a college that didn’t have a specific speech pathology or theatre degree. She majored in communications. This allowed her to experience everything she was interested in without deciding on one. Once she decided for sure that she wanted to be a speech pathologist she transferred to a state college. She started with speech pathology but quickly realized it wasn’t for her. Speech pathology and audiology shared many of the same undergraduate classes, and Dr. Meg found she really enjoyed audiology. She enjoyed the diagnostic part of it and the ability to come up with solutions to address the patient’s individual needs.
After she received her degree, she spent three years working with a private practice audiologist. She then went on to work in an Otolaryngology practice for the following twenty-four years. Because of the fast pace of that practice, she felt frustrated in never having enough time to get to know the patients and discover their lifestyle and listening needs. There were too many time constraints.
“I finally reached the breaking point.” She and her husband made the decision to look for a previously established audiology practice. Dr. Meg knew she wanted to live somewhere warm, near the water. Her husband, Mark, needed to be east of the Mississippi and within an hour of an airport for his job. Dr. Meg contacted her sales rep who could reach out to other sales reps and find out if anyone was retiring or interested in selling their practice. They received a few different options: a few in North Carolina and one here in Beaufort. Everything fell perfectly in line. “It was one of those things where you knew that it was meant to be.” They moved to Beaufort in June 2016. Dr. Meg and her family love it here.
According to Harvey Abrams, PhD, “… many important studies have surfaced linking hearing loss to disabling conditions, such as cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease, clinical depression, diabetes, falls among the elderly, heart disease, and many more.” That is why Dr. Meg knows the importance of looking at the whole individual and not just their hearing ability. Hearing care should be centered around an individual’s communication needs and preferences. Dr. Meg employs Audiology Best Practices, including a thorough Audiologic Evaluation; a Needs Assessment, including unaided speech recognition in noise and perhaps an unaided questionnaire assessing the patient’s perception of his/her unaided performance in a variety of listening situations; a Hearing Aid Evaluation to determine which hearing aids, earmolds, and accessories to order; coupler measurements of the ordered hearing aids to verify they adhere to manufacturer specifications, which include assessing the directional microphones and noise reduction; a Hearing Aid Fitting that must include real-ear measures (REM) and aided speech-in-noise testing; and Validation measures to assess outcomes. Using these measures dramatically improves the performance of the amplification and the day-to-day experience of the patient. Many of her patients come back and say, “I had no idea! I didn’t realize what I was missing.” “This is why I love what I do. I’m so lucky to be able to improve someone’s quality of life, and, in turn, the people, family, and friends around them.” That connection that she creates with each one of her patients is what makes Dr. Meg love her job.
While her office is closed to nonemergent services, there are some options to get you through this pandemic:
Curbside service: If your hearing devices need to be serviced, call ahead and we will come out to your vehicle to pick them up. You may wait in the parking lot, or we can call when ready.
Telehealth: You can think of this as triage. You can call our office and ask for a telehealth appointment. You will need an email address and an internet-enabled device. This appointment is HIPAA compliant.
Supplies: Let us know if you’re low on supplies…batteries, domes, filters, etc., and we’ll mail them to you.
Dr. Meg and her husband have three daughters, all adopted from China: Molly (23) is in the Navy, Madelyn (21) is a fourth-year student at the University of Alabama and is studying athletic training, and Maeve (17) is a junior at Beaufort Academy. When the world gets back to “normal,” Dr. Meg is hoping to expand her services. She wants to educate people that there are always things that can improve your quality of life. She wants people to just know who she is, and that whenever they are ready, she’s ready for them, too.
You can reach Dr. Meg at Kalady Audiology, (843) 271-6864, online at kaladyaudiology.com or facebook.com/kaladyaudiology.
