What are Hearing Aid Best Practices? Best Practice Checklists Included!
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 26 июл 2024
- What are Hearing Aid Best Practices? Dr. Cliff Olson, Audiologist and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions in Anthem Arizona, discusses hearing aid best practices and why they are so important.
Learn more at hearingup.com/blog/best-pract...
Download the Best Practice Checklist at hearingup.com/best-practices-...
HearingUp.com
DrCliffAuD.com
AppliedHearingAZ.com
AAA Best Practice Guidelines: audiology-web.s3.amazonaws.co...
Many industries have best practice guidelines. Take surgeons for example. Surgeons must wash their hands before performing a procedure to reduce the risk of spreading infection. There are documented best practices for properly performing this procedure.
The Hearing Industry also has Best Practice Guidelines when it comes to fitting hearing aids to ensure that providers understand what they must do to ensure maximum benefit with hearing treatment.
The American Academy of Audiology formed a Task Force of some of the hearing industries most educated and highly respected Audiologists to develop Best Practice Guidelines for the Audiologic Management of Adult Hearing Impairment.
These guidelines were developed based on the review of evidence and provides recommendations in 4 general areas:
1. Assessment & Goal Setting
2. Technical Aspects of Treatment
3. Orientation, Counseling, & Follow-up
4. & Assessing Outcomes
First, let’s talk about Assessment & Goal Setting
There are several things that should be done before treatment is even considered. These things should include a Comprehensive Case History, Otoscopic inspection, Cerumen Removal, a Hearing Assessment, and Needs Assessment.
A hearing assessment will result in the type and severity of hearing loss, possible medical referral, discussion of results, and determination of candidacy for hearing treatment.
A lifestyle needs assessment should be completed prior to testing or following testing. This will help to ensure that your hearing care provider can make decisions on hearing treatment recommendations to ensure the treatment is compatible with your lifestyle. If a complete understanding is not obtained, it becomes really difficult to recommend the right hearing treatment.
Second, is the technical aspect of Treatment
This encompasses Hearing Aid Selection, Quality Control, Fitting & Verification, & Hearing Assistive Technology.
When it comes to hearing aid selection, there are a variety of considerations. These include:
1. Style of hearing aid
2. Volume control needs
3. Telecoil needs
4. CROS vs BiCROS vs AmpCROS
5. Bone Anchored Hearing Aid
6. Wireless connectivity
7. Etc.
Quality control is where a Hearing Care Professional will evaluate your devices, including Test Box Measures, to ensure that they are mechanically performing correctly and to verify that digital features are performing correctly.
Fitting & Verification is where Real Ear Measurements (REMs) come into play. REMs are a form of verification that ensures that hearing aids are programmed correctly. However, correct physical fit must be obtained to ensure that the devices can be comfortably worn.
Hearing Assistive Devices such as a remote microphone should be discussed. Sometimes, hearing aids aren’t enough, particularly in a background noise setting. Hearing Assistive Devices could mean the difference between you hearing and not hearing in a noisy environment.
Third is Orientation, Counseling, & Follow-up
Having a detailed orientation can dramatically improve how much success you have with hearing treatment. Counseling & Follow-up care can also ensure that you have success for years to come. Regular visits to a hearing care provider who spends the time to discuss treatment related information and who will maintain your devices is extremely important.
Fourth is Outcome Assessment.
While Real Ear Measurement is a form of Verification, Outcome Assessments are typically forms of Validation. Outcome assessments such as the Hearing Handicap Inventory for Elderly (HHIE), Abreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB), and the Client Oriented Scale of Improvement (COSI) are terrific ways to ensure that the hearing care provider has done a good job and that you are receiving significant benefit with hearing treatment.
Following Best Practices ensures that you receive the maximum amount of benefit from whatever hearing treatment you require. However, finding a Hearing Care Professional who actually follows these Best Practices can be extremely difficult.
This is why the HearingUp Network will be developed. Starting in October 2019, you will be able to go to hearingup.com or https:DrCliffAuD.com to find a provider near you who follows these Best Practices. 
Хобби
Thank you so much for this informative video Dr. Cliff! So appreciated!
I have gone thru many of your videos. I think you are singularly contributing a lot on RUclips about ideal parameters for a really a good HA experience by users.
Following many of your shows they are great.
Thanks Dr Cliff, heading for my first appointment today, this gave me great questions to ask.
This was an awesome video. You provided a great overview of the elements needed in the total provision of hearing care health. Thank you.
I asked a clinic near me (by email) if their aids were "locked". When she (I assume a secretary) called me, she asked what I meant by "locked hearing aids"!
Thank you for all the great information you give in all you videos.
More great info. Thanks.
Thank you for your great videos
To adjust the talking speed, tap the three dots on the top right of the screen. The drop down menu has Playback Speed. Tap normal and another drop down menu will give you choices. Try .75 first and then .5 which is very slow and will distraught the voice but it’s doable for very fast speakers if you need to catch something you just can’t hear with from a very fast speaker. I hope this helps.
I think I paid way too much. But it is what it is. I am learning so much from Cliff Channel. Thank you for all your advice💕👏🏼👏🏼👍🏻👍🏻
Very helpful. Shopping for new hearing aids for my elderly parent...what a pain. Your videos really help cut through the jumble of information. More importantly they help me ask questions that will help me identify the "right" provider who can do a good job, and help understand what matters most.
Thanks for your videos. The most important part that I’ve learned is how to ask better questions. I’m replacing devices that are totally unsatisfactory and disappointing as the provider did not have a game plan for success for the both of us.
I enjoy your videos very much and watching them is what prompted me to finally dive it. Especially when the M90's came out with Android connection features. New HA user. I have Phonak M90R's. When I asked my Aud. for REM, he suggested I go with Phonak's calculated settings instead. He said if he set me up with REM I'd be begging him to set them back. I eventually had him do REM anyway to ensure I was getting maximum benefit. But he was right... I hated it. Way too much on the high end. He said that REM is not necessarily the best way to go, in his experience, with those who have open fit receivers.
Performing REMs correctly is more complex than just setting you to prescriptive targets and letting you go. Simple fact is, it is an adaptation process, and you would eventually hear better at your prescription than at first fit estimates. But as long as you are happy, I am happy. I just hope your provider isn't trying to cut more corners that would cost you additional benefit as well.
Very usefull ! I care a lot about sound quality: no noise and great gain, about 130 dB ! Also, the hidden type is better !
Great informative video Thank You . Do you know if VA Audiologists follow best practices and do real ear measurement when fitting Veterans with hearing aids ?
finally!!!! i cannot find an audiologist in Dallas that I can trust that will do the things you mention in your videos. Hearing aids and all thats involved is too expensive for someone to get wrong. Looking forward to using your recommendations and hopefully Dallas area audiologist sign up.
Called provider for appointment through your website after watching best practices video and was in disbelief on response after asking questions on best practices
great video however speaking more slowly would be appriciated
Sorry John, it's a problem I struggle with.
You can adjust the speed on RUclips. Just tap the three dots on the top right.
The drop down menu gives you the option to adjust speed faster or slower. I sometimes adjust to .75 or .5 there is a huge difference in the delivery of what’s being said. Plus I save the videos to listen to the video whenever I need to reference it. I have folder for all the bloggers I enjoy.
THANK YOU … had no idea!
I just watched this best practices video, after I watched your video about Kirkland 9.0 hearing aides. I have to say that the Costco evaluating and fitting experience wasn't quite up to all you presented. But, I have another issue with the 9.0s. I bought a pair of Kirkland 9.0 hearing aides a couple of months ago and ultimately returned them--twice! They pretty much did what they were supposed to do, but also did one thing they weren't supposed to do. They would suddenly, completely out of the blue, get unbearably loud, so loud that I ripped them out of my ears!! The tech at Costco said this wasn't possible, but I knew it was happening. Due to surroundings, maybe? Nope, they would do it while listening to music, driving in the car with the radio on, in noisy places, in conversations with a group of people. Costco even send the first pair back to Phonak, got me another pair, and they did it, too!! Have you ever heard of this?
Reply may be too late however what was probably happening was that when you added your own program or turned the volume down on the app whenever you received a notification on your phone the hearing aid would go back to the default setting which you may have felt was too loud.
I'm extremely grateful for all the info. Just wanted to pass along that the link provided above for the pdf of the Best Practices Guidelines is to a file on your local hard drive, which doesn't work for downloading. Perhaps a copy uploaded to your web site (the blog section?) or Facebook page would work better--or even more authoritatively, a link to the original site's copy if available for public access.
Fixed the link. Thanks for the info!
Thank you for your informative videos. We have been watching and learning about hearing aids and my husband is FINALLY ready to take this step. I have checked your website and we happen to live in a place where the nearest provider in your network is a minimum of a 3 hour drive away, not ideal. What would be your next best suggestion in this situation?
Hey Vicky, my next suggestion would be to take several hours and call every clinic in your area to see if they follow Best Practices. At the end of the day, it might save you time to do the traveling. What city do you live in?
@@DrCliffAuD I live in Fredonia, NY. It is about half way between Buffalo, NY and Erie, Pa. I have a list of providers and your provider checklist to use when I call. I did find one provider about 40 miles away that states on their web site they preform Real Ear Measurements. I will be contacting them first. Thank you so much for replying and making informative and unbiased videos.
Prices are also determine by were you live. California will pay more then Michigan. It shouldn't be that way, but it is.
Any chance on finding best practices hearing aid providers in Canada?
Watching your videos have been so important but you need to vet local providers better through your network!!!
How can a hearing test determine if hearing loss is sensory or conductive. thanks Robert
I've been watching your videos for a while. Thank you for your very informative videos. Based on your advice, I returned to my hearing aid company and asked them why they never conducted a Real Ear Measurement when they fitted me with my hearing aid. Their response: "Because you have a CROS. And after using the Real Ear Measurements, we would have to override it anyway to compensate for the fact that your hearing in one ear is almost gone." Bottom line: They insisted it was pointless. Is this correct? Thanks for what you do.
Do you have normal hearing in your good ear?
@@hoyerd I have almost complete loss in left ear and partial loss in the right ear. Why do you ask?
@@rogerm5757 I was wondering if you had loss on both sides, or had normal hearing in one ear and complete in the other. I've been told that if someone has a CROS and has normal hearing on one side, they don't need to run REM since that side isn't dealing with hearing loss, and just amplifying the sounds from the opposite ear. However, in your case, they should totally for sure run REM if you're "good" ear still has hearing loss being amplified.
@@hoyerd Thanks for your response. You're right. In my original post, I misstated that I have a CROS. I have a BICROS. CROS is when you have complete loss in one ear and normal hearing in the other ear. And BICROS is when you have complete loss in one ear and partial loss in the second ear. The latter is my case. And Doctor Cliff did respond to my question on another of his videos, and based on his response, I dumped the "hearing aid specialist" and switched to an audiologist who did indeed conduct REM on my partial-loss ear and it made a WORLD OF DIFFERENCE!
@@rogerm5757 Glad to hear that you're having success! I'm a Hearing Aid Practitioner who believes in running REM. It's just good verification, no way around it.
My problem is bad discrimination. When listening I cannot distinguish between "bear" and "deer", "rice" and "mice" etc. It's especially annoying when I listen to a video presentation on RUclips without captions. I have purchased very expensive hearing aids but they seem only to increase the dB. I have complained to my audiologist who made some adjustments but it did not help much. Besides that the microphones of the hearing aid are very often clogged with ear wax, even if I have my ears cleaned regularly every two months by my otolaryngologist.
Would each audiologist carry several brands? Is that a best practice?
When are we going to see no surgery bone conduction hearing aids? Please,please?
I went to one of your vetted professionals and picked up the new HA a couple of days ago.
Question: what should I do about follow up care. This office has a $350/year follow up program. Is that reasonable? Necessary?
Previously I had Costco and I was spoiled with free follow up. The new HA are better so no complaints there.
I live in Paso Robles California , can you recommend a hearing specialist?
Mark in Blaine, Washington. I use Rainier in Bellingham as my provider. (Just got a pair of Oticon More 1 aids) Have they been reviewed for best practices? Thx.
I hope this gets to you! My 87 yr old dad has starky brand that a big medical establishment recommended. He only asked to hear me, my husband, his lady friend, and the TV. He has a streamer that hasn't worked and after 3 adjustments his Dr has seemed to kick him to the curb. I'm furious of course. Should I request a different audiologist?
Do COSTCO audiologists follow these best practices?
What about the provider washing or sanitizing their hands before handing hearing airs?
i do it. It’s simply and not pain😁.
When is the Real Ear Measurement performed? I've been to the audiologist two times so far. First visit was several different hearing tests, discuss lifestyles, etc. Second was to discuss various options, take ear measurements and select HA's which we decided on the More1 Mini RITE. I have not had the REM done yet and was wondering if it should be performed with the selected HA's (third visit).
Thanks.
Typically it will be performed at your actual fitting appointment. Some clinics do it at your first follow-up visit after wearing the hearing aids for a week or two.
I would love to upgrade my hearing aids to this new one. Where do u find (best practices) office in VA?
Go to my website www.DrCliffAuD.com and click on "Find a Local Provider"
Hearing loss is very complex. I have a hard time understanding my hearing loss. At times it doesn't make sense and its difficult for me to explain.
With all the things that need to happen it is best to stay deaf.
Dr Cliff, do you have members of Best Practices in Bergen County, NJ? I did not see any one.
Same here in Virginia! There's only one and its 100 or more miles away. I asked one clinic here about this and other things. When she called me back, she asked me what I meant by "locked" hearing aids. I didn't have the patience to ask her if her clinic knew what REM is. So, alas, I will have to flounder around on my own!
Texas?!
Doctors Cliff why don’t you have a hearing aid for your hearing loss ?
Should I expect to pay more for hearing evaluations from providers that adhere to Best Practices?
Not really.
Off topic but...
Do you use Million Dollar Collar or some other placket/collar device for your shirts? Your collars and plackets always look nice and smooth.
Guilty as charged!!!
@@DrCliffAuD now, I know I need to get mine installed. Great look.
I received a pair of hearing aids on 3 days ago. The first night I removed my left aid but the dome or tip had to be removed by a doctor. Now the aids feel like something is in my ears and I am not hearing that well with them. I have paid for them and do not want to keep them or deal with this audiologist. How do I cancel and get my $4200 back.
Have you done a similar study of good, bad, and ugly fittings by others? Are all private audiologist fittings perfect? Are there bad apples in the non-Costco world?
He’s running a practice and you expect to him to do a study of all private audiologists fittings. As if he could even get that information without contacting every one of their patients, a list of whom he doesn’t have access to since they aren’t his patients. Clueless!
I am 75 needing my first hearing aids . What do you recommend? Two audiologists I went two were like car salesmen trying to sell most expensive hearing aid
Where do you live?
Austintown ohio by Youngstown ohio and Warren ohio .
I would either recommend you travel to Concord OH to see Dr. Sarah Curtis, or just outside of Pittsburg in Oakmont PA to see Dr. Caitlin Conley.
Are there providers that lock down their hearing aides only they can service them?
Is there a device that can measure hearing with and without hearing sids? Test like sound room with tones with hearing devices installed.
You're talking about functional gain testing. It is much better to do suprathreshold verification with Real Ear Measurement.
Do Kaiser audiologist follow best practices
Who knows?🤷
one priver had the stat of the earth this was in longford IRELAND
?
Thank you so much for this video and the “best hearing aid ranking scam”. I have been so scared to establish with a provider due to picking up on the vibe that there could be a scam somewhere in there. Who’s getting commissions and letting money get in the way of ethics? It hurts your entire field because consumer trust erodes - because we feel more like customers than patients. And when you’re talking about a product that insurance doesn’t cover and I need to take a loan out to get, it’s scary and depressing to be hearing impaired in the US.
Dr.Cliff, this may sound like a dumb question but I have no idea how to explain the sounds or way that I hear to my provider. When she asks if things sound hollow, tinny, etc. I have no CLUE what that means to you all. After my second follow up visit, I still feel like everything is LOUD but I can not understand what people are saying. Does that make sense?
I just got my second set of hearing aids 2 weeks ago. My first set were horrible and I NEVER wore them because I had to take them out when I ate, when there was to much background noise, and at work. I'm a (INT/ICU) nurse and it made the vents and alarms louder than the patients and my peers voice.
I thought I was on the right track with the phonak marvel but I feel like these are going to end up like my first ones. Useless! Any suggestions?
How close did they match your amplification to your prescription using Real Ear Measurement?
@@DrCliffAuD I'm not sure, the only graph I saw was with the loaner (not Phonak, that I used for 6 days) hearing aids. I am going back tomorrow, we talked about her doing REMs again. I will keep you posted.
@@jerim3050 hi I am a dispenser in NY. Many of my clients do not like the Phonak marvels, to the point that my practice is considering not dispensing them anymore. Tbh the audio quality just doesn't sound well in my opinion. Try the Widex Evoke RIC if u have insurance to pay for them I recommend getting the premium model the 440s. Everyone I fit actually loves them. I hope you see this.Good luck keep us posted.
Doctor Cliff, AuD rear ear measurements
Hi @@jerim3050, were you successful with the HA fitting?
Is "telecoil verification" on your Best Practices List? If so, how is it done?
Telecoil verification can be done in some Test Boxes. However, not all test boxes have this capability. Some clinics may have a hearing loop installed, like we do in our clinic to verify sound quality and performance of the Tcoil, however some clinics may have to use a telecoil neckloop to verify performance.
@@DrCliffAuD But if you are just using a hearing loop and asking "how does that sound" it seems to me that is not real verification...{per REM video}. Isn't there a way to really know it is working up to capacity? I had heard of a machine called Verifit from Juliëtte Sterkins, right?
Miracle ear for mild hearing loss?? Cost is 3,000
Soooo, there are no audiologists in KC, MO. that follow your best practices! I have gone to Costco to look at hearing aids!, I’m just wondering if their audiologists are good? Also can you pay an audiologist to do hearing test etc then take your results so you can shop around for best price on the actual hearing aid?
Hi Sherry, I'm in OPKS and I'm just beginning this process. Were you able to find an audiologist you would recommend in KC area? Thx! 😀
Since you posted this video 3 years ago, are there any more audiologists near me? 92075
Would you say it's "unprofessional" of an audiologist to not even mention that telecoils exist and to mention and discuss the other hearing assistive technologies?
Got told today, “We mostly use best practices but no longer use real ear measurement because REM is no longer relevant with the new technology that’s out today”.
One of the audiologists on your list should not be on it best practice was not followed more like a hearing aid mill
You talk WAY too fast and too emphatically throughout all the points which makes it difficult to keep track of the most important. It is also exhausting! Tone it down about a notch or two.