Rachael R. Baiduc

Dr. Baiduc is a hearing scientist with expertise in public health. She is the director of the HEARD laboratory (Hearing Epidemiology and Research Diagnostics). She earned her MPH and PhD from Northwestern University.

Her primary research interest is exploring risk factors for age-related hearing loss (presbycusis), especially those related to cardiovascular disease. Risk factors including tobacco smoking, hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, and marijuana are evaluated by her research team. Professor Baiduc performs translational laboratory-based research using behavioral and physiological assessment of the auditory system. Current projects utilize high-frequency distortion product otoacoustic emission testing to evaluate the cochlea in persons with hypertension.

Professor Baiduc also conducts epidemiological research using supervised machine learning approaches to explore the association of cardiovascular disease risk factors on hearing loss across the lifespan. To that end, she has worked with the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), Jackson Heart Study (JHS), and Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL) datasets. She teaches courses for the undergraduate and graduate (AuD) programs at CU Boulder. 

Dr. Baiduc's research has been funded by CU Boulder (Innovative Seed Grant), the Hearing Health Foundation, the American Hearing Research Foundation, and the NIH (NIDCD).