Delivering personalized hearing care
An important factor For professional hearing care clinicians , isthe ability to deliver personalized hearing care efficiently as well as staying competitive in an increasingly challenging market. Peter Sotiropoulos, Au.D., FAAA, CCC-A and clinic owner shared with us his first impressions of Otoscan, and if he sees new ways to deliver personalized hearing care to his patients. Dr. Sotiropoulos has been using Otoscan in his clinic, The Hearing Rehabilitation Center in Kanakee, Illinois, since December 2017, and he envisages many opportunities with Otoscan.
“With regard to personalized hearing health care, Otoscan further enhances and builds upon what we are already doing for our patients. In our clinic, every aspect of a traditional hearing aid fitting is about customizing or personalizing the clinical approach – whether it is the fitting, the programming, or counseling – we personalize everything for the individual,” says Dr. Sotiropoulos.
Engaging Patients
With Otoscan, the patient can actually see the scanning image of their ear canal being built during the scan. The clinician is then able to explain the anatomy and structure of the ear canal to the patient. Dr. Sotiropoulos believes the technology behind Otoscan provides new opportunities to establish an even closer rapport between clinician and patient.
“The Otoscan digital image enables us to engage with our patients on a completely new level. Patients can see and understand the challenges we encounter making the appropriate molds for their particular ear – especially if they have an unusually-shaped ear canal,” says Dr. Sotiropoulos. “What’s more, patients who have had difficulties with their earmolds due to unusual shapes in their ear canal are more open to trying again with a new hearing system when they can see the digital image of their ear canal from Otoscan. This allows them to observe and jointly participate in their hearing health care decision-making.”
Efficiency
Impoving processes and boosting efficiency is top of mind when choosing new equipment. For Dr. Sotiropoulos and his staff, keeping earmold turnaround time to a minimum is a key goal for delivering personalized hearing care in an efficient way. The Otoscan 3D digital ear scanning process helps them achieve that.
“Our goal is to keep earmold turnaround time to a minimum. In terms of shipping, with Otoscan, we save from 3-5 days turnaround time per hearing aid order. Even a “second day” return shipment allows for a two to three day timesavings when sending a scan for a new or remade product. If we send an image (instead of shipping a silicone impression), you are saving those initial 2-3 days. That is not really going to affect the return shipment, but if I can cut shipping time by fifty percent or more – that’s huge in terms of time savings.”
Personalized hearing care
Otoscan enables hearing care professionals to make digital impressions for custom in-the-ear pieces such as earmolds and hearing aids. The scanner solution applies novel technology to transform images of the ear into 3D digital files that are uploaded to the cloud service, Otocloud™, for immediate use in production of custom products, delivering significant efficiency and quality gains in the production of hearing aids.
Otoscan – it’s the way forward
