Offering Your Patients a Best-practice Outcome
Dennis Van Vliet, AuD, discusses the ideas behind what constitutes "best practices" in an adult hearing aid fitting.
Tag: Dennis Van Vliet
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Embracing the Technological Revolution in Hearing Care
The future is clouded with unknowns like over-the-counter (OTC) opportunities and advances in implantable devices, but I’m sure that baby-boomer demographics will ensure that there will be plenty of potential hearing aid users who will need our help.
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Adapting Treatment Solutions to the Individual
A problem arises if we don’t stop to think about the spectrum of individual differences that are out there in the tapestry of our patient population.
A Visit to CI2017…and Why It’s Valuable to Move Outside Your ‘Audiology Comfort Zone’
I was pleasantly surprised at how the content of this meeting captured and held my attention, introducing me to a broader scope of information and overlap with hearing aids.
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The Evolving Clinician, with a Nod to Dr Hawkins
In this issue of “The Hearing Review,” my friend David Hawkins, PhD, talks about retirement, and offers those of us not in that position some good advice. I like his comments about doing “…more of what you are good at.”
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The Perils of Taking the Easy Road
As we look for more efficient and better ways of doing our jobs, I would challenge us to ask ourselves whether we are avoiding a hard road that leads to excellence, and slipping into a pathway that seems efficient but leads to mediocrity.
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Staff Standpoint: It Should Be an Interesting Month!
It appears that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is preparing to tender some draft form of a classification for over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids very soon—quite possibly at the June 9 National Academies’ Hearing Health Care Report Dissemination Meeting.
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Serving Your Patients and OTC Devices
Those of us who have chosen to earn a living serving those who have difficulty hearing also have an obligation: a duty to do what is right for the patient.
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Life as an Audiologist: Stories Too Good Not to Tell
Even the best hearing care professionals make mistakes or find themselves in unexpected situations. Here are some humorous and poignant stories from “the trenches” of audiology.
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Loving What You Do: The Joy of Not Having to Grumble ‘It’s a Job’
I love the sense of accomplishment when I am done with fitting and verifying hearing aids on an initial fit. It is literally uplifting fun for me to do my job. When others share their stories about their approach to a problem that yielded a successful outcome, I make note of it if the approach was innovative and get vicarious enjoyment from their success. When someone from any profession tells me about their work and grumbles “It’s a job,” I feel disappointed and sorry for them.
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Final Word: Paving the Road to Patient Success When the “New Normal” Is LESS Face-to-Face Service
As the “new normal” becomes less personal face-to-face service in many aspects of our lives, we will need to determine how to best prepare our patients for success. The fact is that today’s hearing aids, as sophisticated as they are, still have the fundamental requirements that hearing aid users have dealt with for decades. The question is how will we provide the service, and set up a system where the patient feels that they are receiving appropriate value for the money they invest in us?
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The Final Word: Organize Your Work Space to Enhance the Patient Experience
Dr Van Vliet advises that you may want to reorganize your work space as one of your New Year’s resolutions to help improve the patient experience at your practice. If the space works for you and is pleasing to your patients, everyone is happy.
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The Final Word: Making Compromises and Adapting to Change
Dr Van Vliet discusses how hearing care professionals must become agile at adapting to change–in myriad ways–as the hearing healthcare industry and hearing aid marketplace undergo changes.
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The Final Word: Van Vliet’s 5-year Predictions for Hearing Healthcare
In his November 2016 column, Dr Van Vliet makes predictions about the directions hearing care may take over the next 5 years in regard to disruptive technology, practice models, ear impressions, hearing aid batteries, and more.
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The Final Word: How Offhand Remarks Can Guide Patient Treatment
We may be better able to help patients when we listen not only to their direct statements, but also to the offhand remarks they make that can offer insight into their deeper thoughts, which can often guide us on the path to better communication and a better treatment plan.
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The Final Word: Avoiding Distractions on the Path to Hearing Care
Problems may occur when we or the patient focus solely on a particularly attractive new hearing technology. We may forget that technology, while important, is no substitute for clinical expertise and common sense. A blend of expertise, patient participation, and technology will help us stay on track.
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The Final Word: Using Data to Provide Fruitful Outcomes in Hearing Care
Dr Van Vliet discusses the importance of gathering as much data as possible–even where scientific studies are lacking–to help the patient with hearing problems reach the best possible, or most fruitful, outcome.
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The Final Word: Reality Check on Providing Affordable Hearing Care
Dr Van Vliet argues that providing affordable, accessible hearing care is complicated, and technology alone won’t solve the problem, but improvements in the process will help. As recommendations from NAS are reviewed, it is important to consider processes as well.
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