LAPTOPS THAT LOOK, LISTEN AND LEARN

Hearing aids can dramatically improve the quality of life of users. Sandra Vogel findsout how laptops can help in the diagnosis of hearing problems and the fitting of aids

More than seven million people in the UK suffer from some sort of hearing loss, and this varies greatly in its nature and effects. Modern digital hearing aids use sophisticated technology to help deal with the problems. These need to be carefully programmed so as to match an individual’s profile – something that requires specialist knowledge on the part of a dispenser and sophisticated access to the systems controlling the hearing aid itself. Hidden Hearing is one of the UK’s leading hearing aid specialists. The company has around 200 dispensers working throughout the country – on the high street or mobile. These trained hearing aid audiologists assess client requirements, source suitable hearing aids to meet their needs and fit them. Peter Symes, IT operations manager at Hidden Hearing explains how the system worked before laptops were introduced.

“In the past Hidden Hearing’s audiologists recorded the information they learned from consultations using pen and paper. They would use a device called an audiometer to take measurements, and plot the findings onto a paper-based graph to get what we call a hearing loss curve. “This was time consuming, and didn’t always offer the best service to the customer. Dispensers had to turn away from clients during consultations and concentrate on plotting information to ensure absolute accuracy, so
they couldn’t always give people their full attention. Also, clients were sometimes surprised to see us using a relatively old fashioned method for gathering crucial information about their needs.”

The document produced as a result of the consultation is called an audiogram, and the dispensers would post this to Hidden Hearing’s head office in Maidstone, Kent for safe storage, while in the mean time ordering the hearing aid the client needed. “When the hearing aid was delivered,” continues Symes, “sales personnel would have to post the audiogram back to the dispenser who would then revisit the client and fit their new hearing aid. This involved fine tuning the hearing aid using various tests and matching up the results with the information on the original audiogram. “What we wanted was a system that could digitise the recording of information at the original consultation, which would allow the electronic storage of this information by both the dispenser and head office, and help us with the fitting process.”

SOLUTION

“The solution we chose was to deploy IBM X31 ThinkPads to our team of dispensers, and equip these with software called Noah3, to help with the consultation, assessment and fitting stages,” explains Symes. “We chose these particular laptops because they are small, light and we could easily lock them down. That’s to say we could distribute them without CD-ROM drives so staff couldn’t put their own software onto them. This meant that we could be in control of what was on the computers and keep them simple to maintain.

“We also gave our dispensers some new audiometers with the facility to communicate with the laptops through a USB interface. So now when our hearing tests are conducted the information they gather is transferred directly into the laptop, and the audiogram we need is created automatically.” By opting for a mobile computer, Hidden Hearing discovered that many of its work practices were being streamlined, and in some cases, the way they used information changed. Symes explains: “because the audiogram is digital our dispensers can send it electronically to head office and we can implement a backup and storage system that can involve both onsite and off-site copies of our data. This is important from a patient records point of view.”

“We now also have procedures in place that allow our dispensers to backup the information onto a USB memory key drive. This means they can ensure their data is safe from any problems they may have with the ThinkPads. And, importantly, it means that when hearing aids are delivered, our dispensers have the original digital audiogram with them. As they are
all digitally based, each step connects directly with the hearing aid and fitting software.”

DEVELOPMENT

“Our main aims with this project revolved around a desire to provide dispensers with the technology to perform more efficient assessment of hearing problems and more accurate fitting of hearing aids,” explains Symes. “To that end, we needed to source appropriate software and hardware. We didn’t need to develop any software ourselves, as Noah3 offers what we require. On the hardware front we needed small and light laptops that we could distribute without any disk drives. We also required them to run quietly as any noise, even that of a laptop fan, can disrupt the results of a hearing test. The ThinkPads met all these needs. “So in that sense we did not really have any issues around the development of the solution we have implemented. It was fairly straightforward for us. But we also wanted a solution for keeping our dispensers’ laptops up-to-date with
the latest information, and with around 200 laptops to manage this is not a simple task. This is a fast-moving field, and new products are released by hearing aid manufacturers as often as six times a year,” says Symes. “Our desire to have the laptops locked down and to distribute them without CD-ROM drives means we are not able to deliver updated information to the laptops using CD-ROM. Instead we update them as part of the regular monthly team meetings system we run, which help ensure staff who are based in the field get to meet and discuss important company matters. While the dispensers meet, our technical staff update their laptops. It’s a system that works very well indeed from a technology point of view, and does not impose additional work on the dispensers themselves.”

UP AND RUNNING

The service as it is now running is extremely efficient, and has resulted in slight changes in procedure for dispensers, enhancement of data collection and hearing aid fitting and a better experience for the company’s clients. “The information gathering process is now highly efficient because during consultations information is transmitted directly from audiometers to the ThinkPads via a wired link,” says Symes. “Importantly, the hearing aid fitting process is greatly improved too. The dispenser is able to use special software to help with fitting. This communicates directly with the hearing aid, taking information from the audiogram and transferring it to the fitting module, eliminating any manual processes at this stage.”

"We can then do the fine-tuning to help tailor the aid to the client’s individual requirements using the computer. We are able to access more of the advanced features of modern digital hearing aids than we were able to get to with our earlier fitting system, and this is very important.”

“To give just one example, you can program a modern digital hearing aid so that it responds more heavily from sounds that come from certain directions. This means if a client is speaking to someone face-to face-they might not need much sound amplification as they can read lips as well as listen. Over amplified sound might be uncomfortable in this situation. But if someone is standing behind a client and speaking their voice might need more amplification. So the aid can be programmed to deliver more amplification from behind the wearer than from in front of them,” explains Symes.

The dispensers are all pleased with the new system, and there are plans for further enhancements. In particular Peter Symes is keen to use ADSL connections to transmit audiogram data to head office, to configure Bluetooth rather than wired connections between audiometers and hearing aids at the client end and the ThinkPads so that consultation and fitting are more client-friendly exercises, to use the access to email that the laptops open up to enable better communications with dispensers, and to enable customer relationship management software so that the hearing aid ordering process can be completely automated.

BUSINESS BENEFITS
• Increased access to the functions of modern digital hearing aids
• Improved accuracy in recording individual client hearing profiles
• Secure and safe storage of client records
• Better client focus during hearing assessment aid fitting meetings
• On demand client history and hearing profile aiding better customer service
• Reduced paper flow between field based sales personnel and head office

Hardware USed - IBM ThinkPad X31 - www.ibm.co.uk   

Hearing care software - Noah 3 - www.noah3.com

About Hidden Hearing
Hidden Hearing is one of the largest suppliers of hearing aids in Europe. The company helps more than 30,000 clients every year, and conducts almost 100,000 hearing examinations. It has been supplying hearing aids for over 30 years.

www.hiddenhearing.co.uk