A system for comparison of hearing aids in the outpatient hearing aid department

• Published in: AUDIOLOGY JAPAN Vol. 57; no. 3; pp. 181 - 188
• Main Authors: Suzuki, Daisuke, Shinden, Seiichi, Okazaki, Hiroshi, Sakamoto, Kouji, nishiyama, Takanori, Nakamura, Shintarou, Ueno, Megumi, Ogawa, Kaoru
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Japan Audiological Society 30.06.2014
• ISSN: 0303-8106; 1883-7301
• DOI: 10.4295/audiology.57.181

Previously, health care providers at our department selected hearing aids taking into account factors such as the social background and hearing ability of the patients. However, in some cases, patients have expressed dissatisfaction with the mechanism of adjustment of the hearing aid and the model of the hearing aid, and requested change of the hearing aid to a different model. Therefore, we decided to implement a comparative hearing aids hearing aid comparison system as a new method for selecting hearing aids. In this system, the patient selects the hearing aid by testing several hearing aids from different manufacturers and comparing the hearing effectiveness. We found that by using this system, the number of patients desiring replacement of hearing aids reduced to 20 of 544 patients (3.7%). Furthermore, none of the 11 patients who purchased hearing aids expressed dissatisfaction with the selected hearing aid model. We believe that allowing patients to freely choose a hearing aid after testing and comparing several brands led to a high degree of satisfaction and acceptance for the hearing aid model that the patients selected.