Hearing care professionals can now take advantage of digital health solution for convenient hearing aftercare
Hearing solutions specialist Oticon is launching Oticon RemoteCare, a new e-health solution enabling hearing care professionals to provide a convenient digital aftercare service that hearing aid users can enjoy from the comfort of their home or office.
Follow-up appointments can now be more flexible, and hearing aid adjustments more effective, with personalised hearing aid management in non-clinical environments.
According to GSMA, it is estimated that by 2020 there will be 5.7 billion smartphones worldwide. Clients will undoubtedly be more tech-savvy in the future and likewise more demanding of their healthcare services, says Oticon. In light of this, Oticon RemoteCare aims to help hearing care professionals meet the demands of these clients.
After initial consultations and fitting appointments in the clinic are concluded, Oticon RemoteCare makes it easier for hearing care professionals and hearing aid users to continuously manage the hearing experience.
Due to remote communication technology, users do not necessarily need to visit a clinic for hearing aid check-ups, adjustments, counselling and advice. By making it easier to schedule appointments, with digital face-to-face interaction, hearing aid users can avoid taking time off work or travelling long distances to connect to a hearing care professional.
At the same time, audiologists can benefit from a more reliable appointment diary unaffected by cancellations or delays due to unforeseen bad weather or traffic.
Audiologists can also now adjust their clients’ hearing aids remotely in real-time and can have them test their new settings while talking with them. As Oticon RemoteCare enables in-situation hearing care, adjustments can be made in real-life scenarios, empowering hearing care professionals to help people with hearing loss enjoy a more tailored hearing experience from their hearing aid.
Instead of aftercare in quiet clinics, hearing care professionals can also ensure clients have the optimal settings even when they are surrounded by noise, or wherever the hearing aid users generally struggle to hear the most.
The Oticon RemoteCare tool in Oticon’s Genie 2 fitting software adds to existing hearing clinic services to provide a more flexible way for hearing care professionals to communicate with, and assist users of, Oticon’s latest Oticon Opn and Oticon Opn S hearing aids.
Heine Højvang Andersen, Vice President for Business & Portfolio Planning at Oticon, said: “We are excited to enable hearing care professionals with our hearing after care solution, Oticon RemoteCare, that is convenient for them as well as their patients.
“We believe that remote appointments will be part of everyday healthcare solutions for the modern lifestyle. Hearing aid users are already looking to utilise technology to become engaged in their own healthcare, and we are certain that many hearing aid users will welcome this professional e-health service.”