Starkey Hearing Aid Accessories

In this episode of Starkey SoundBites, Dr. Dave Fabry, Starkey's Chief Hearing Health Officer, interviews Dr. Kristy Lowery, Audibel's Director of Clinical Operations, about the importance of hearing aid accessories. They discuss how accessories can enhance the benefits of hearing aids and provide specific examples of how accessories like the TV Streamer, Table Mic, Remote Control, and Remote Mic can improve the listening experience in various situations. They emphasize the need for clinicians to recommend accessories to their patients, as they can significantly improve their hearing journey!  

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Welcome to Starkey Soundbites. I'm Dave Fabry, Starkey's chief hearing health officer and host of the podcast. Today we're talking about your hearing aid wardrobe accessories, if you will. If hearing aids are considered the daily wear, um I can think of no one better than Dr. Christy Lowry, uh Audubell's director of clinical operations, to talk about the topic of accessorizing your hearing wardrobe. Yes. Um it's great to have you back on the on the podcast. I think we talked uh a year ago or more about telehealth.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

We did.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

And now we're gonna shift that conversation into an important topic that often is taken for granted, really. Yeah. Um, the use of accessories and how it is that it can really expand on the benefits that people can receive from hearing aids alone. And hearing aids are great. The technology in Genesis AI has been one that we featured on this podcast a lot. But sometimes hearing aids alone are not enough.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

That is true.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

And so that's really the topic for today's broadcast, and thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Yeah, I'm thrilled to be here. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_02 1:05

You bet. So, well, let's start right away at square one. Why would a patient fitted uh with hearing aids need accessories?

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Yeah, well, you mentioned it. Sometimes they're just not enough. And I have a perfect story that I always go back to. It happened uh fairly early in my career, but I fit a talk radio host. And his complaint was that at home he wasn't able to hear the television well with his wife. So he came in, I fit him with hearing aids, premium hearing aids, sent him home, and he came back for his follow-up and he told me, you know, I can I can tell a difference. They help, yes. But I don't know that they help enough for me to justify wearing them just for television, which was his primary complaint, right? So I sent him home with the TV streamer. He came back and he said, That did it, put it over the top, it made all the difference in the world. So what a great example to show that a hearing aid does a great job, but may not always get at what the patient is really needing the most.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

For sure. I I say only half kiddingly that the TV streamer in combination with hearing aids has saved more than a few relationships and marriages.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

Because um, you know, really the issue is let let's let's do a deeper dive on that use case since you provided it. So fitted with proper hearing aids, now the patient can hear the television um better because if they're if they're fitted properly, they're gonna do that. But but there's noise in the environment, and we know that people with hearing loss, particularly as it progresses, even properly fitted with hearing aids with sophisticated directional and noise reduction technology, are more sub uh subject to difficulties and disturbances by noise in the ambient environment. So talk a little bit about why the TV streamer and how it is that you configured or could configure for use to either have the hearing aid user hear some of the other sounds or only hear what's coming from the TV.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Yeah, so what uh a great thing about uh a lot of our accessories, and particularly the TV streamer, which is our most popular, I would argue, accessory, is that you can set it up to stream only to the hearing aid so that you're reducing, you can actually turn the mics off of the hearing aid while you're streaming, so you're only getting that streaming sound from the television. You can turn your mics on so that you're also hearing your wife beside you, your husband beside you, whomever, while also hearing the television. And you can change that from the app on your phone while you're watching. So it doesn't have to be a static setting. But oftentimes with television, what if our living room is big and we have beautiful vaulted ceilings and there's a lot of reverberation to your point? It really makes it difficult to hear the television. And so that streamer just cuts down on reverberation, it cuts down on the distance from the television. I don't know how far you're sitting from your television. So it does all those things that we know um to be helpful when fitting a hearing aid. We're reducing signal-to-noise ratio, we're do reducing distance, we're reducing reverberation.

SPEAKER_02 4:02

Yeah, I you raised so many important points. And and, you know, I wear um the devices, uh, even though I have uh, and I've said many times on this podcast, you know, my wife Liz may beg to differ, but I think I'm testing them. She thinks uh uh increasingly I'm hearing better when I'm wearing them. So I sound like our patients now. But but I will um uh use the streamer and uh and in and there are times when I want to make sure that the TV's low if if Liz is taking a nap or if if we're going to bed and we have it in in the TV in the bedroom and I want to watch a sporting event, um, I can have the audio off on the TV and I can be getting streamed at the volume that I like, uh uh you know, discreetly. But then other times you want to be aware, you want to be in that ambiance. If there is a a game on that's featuring one of your teams or a TV event that you want to engage while you're wearing the devices, and really that flexibility and really the professional uh really trying to get in the mindset of what it is that the patient wants to experience with a TV streamer, knowing that they can also still override that for specific situations in their user app. Yep. And so that TV streamer, I think, is, as you said, our one of our or our most popular in our retail operations. It is the most popular.

SPEAKER_00 5:21

It absolutely is. And I would argue that almost every patient that walks in our office could benefit from one.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

Yeah, I completely agree. I mean, if there's one accessory that that any patient would use and benefit from, it would be that one. Now, we know the landscape is changing in in the years ahead. We have with the promise of Oracast, again, this wonderful Bluetooth low energy that we have is on the verge of I think of a transformation to where the new television sets that will be coming out are capable. Right now it's all potential. There's no greater burden than a great potential. We'll see how long it takes to disseminate this, but the TVs of the future may eliminate the need for TV streamers. But what do you say when someone comes in to uh one of our uh of our offices and says, Well, I'm just gonna wait for for the new TV streamers to come out. I don't really feel like I need the TV streamer now. How do how do we address that with patients who might be waiting for Godot? They might be waiting for five years in order to get there.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

Right, right. Well, I would just say, you know, you you talked to me, Mr. Smith, today about having issues right now. So we want to go ahead and take care of that. When the newer technology comes out, we'll cross that bridge when we get there. But I think we need to be very assumptive in our both hearing aid sales as well as our accessory sales. So we we really uh focus on a patient-guided treatment plan in our retail organization. So when I'm talking to a patient about the issues that they're having, when I get to the point where I'm gonna make a strong recommendation for treatment, I'm just gonna go ahead and say, Mr. Smith, because of the issues that you were talking to me about with the television problems, I you know, you're you're wanting to watch television with your wife more seamlessly. I'm gonna go ahead and recommend a television streamer in addition to the devices that we talked about, in order to complete your treatment plan. How many TVs do you have? So we're being very assumptive in the fact that as a professional, I know that this is going to help you, and I'm just I'm telling you that this is what I'm recommending.

SPEAKER_02 7:21

That was a great example of how to talk to patients about that. And that last point I want to uh probe on a little bit more because it is a frequent one that comes up where patients who have multiple homes, they have a vacation home or in a primary residence, or have multiple television sets that they want to interface with in their home. Um, how do you address that? I heard you say, how many TVs do you have and in which locations? Do most patients leave with uh one TV streamer in their primary residence, where then anytime they want to watch something, they go and do that, or do you uh typically, if you if you approach the conversation with them, do they get multiple uh TV streamers in their primary residence?

SPEAKER_00 8:02

Yeah, I think you hit on it if you approach it with them. So we can't assume that just they just need one. We might have a television in the bonus room and a television in the living room or the bedroom, and taking that back and forth. We want them to have a seamless experience. And our hearing aids are capable of being paired to several streamers. So they walk into this room and it connects, they walk into this room and it connects. And so as a professional, it's it's our duty to know that and to recommend it and have that conversation. Clearly, it's the patient's you know prerogative whether they want to purchase multiple. Um, but again, it's it's our job to help them here as best they can, and that's one way of doing it.

SPEAKER_02 8:45

Yeah, I think you really hit on that seamless element. You want the user experience to be as delightful as possible. And that ability to pair to multiple TV streamers, walk into one room and it will automatically register. Yep. And then go to the other room and it will do that same thing once you move out of the range of one and the other. And uh patients who adapt and adjust to that sort of seamless experience, I think, have the best benefit. And the cost of better hearing is uh uh a pretty low one when we talk about that TV streamer.

SPEAKER_00 9:19

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 9:20

So then let's talk about one of the other accessories that you've brought with you today for those who are watching this on our YouTube channel. Just hold up the TV streamer first to show those people who are watching. Yep. The square box about the size of a uh, you know, a little larger than a card in a deck of cards.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Yeah, yep. Very easy. Power button. Uh, it's very easy to pair. Your hearing professional will help you to do that. You can change the volume on the actual streamer box or on your hearing aids or on your television, as we mentioned. There are various ways to do it through the application on your phone. Um, so yeah, it's it's very easy to use, just plugs in right behind the television. You don't even see it necessarily unless you want to.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

And it can be controlled by onboard controls on the TV or within the user app.

SPEAKER_00 10:08

Correct. So great.

SPEAKER_02 10:09

Okay, so which one do you want to talk about next? You brought you brought a lot of them before.

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Well, I am a huge fan of this table mic as well. Um, and so the table mic uh has a lot of use cases. So I think one of the first that comes to mind is a boardroom situation or a big family gathering situation where you have a lot of people at a table, and most patients walk in complaining of television and hearing in background noise, having difficulty in those environments. And so with the table mic, what's so great about it is you can kind of put it in the middle of the table, and then it's you can put it in a mode where it's automatically going to kind of find that most uh dominant signal and stream it right to your hearing aids. So it's incredible. Um, you can also wear it around someone's neck, someone can wear it around their necks so that you can hear them at a distance. So lots and lots of ways that uh the table mic can be used.

SPEAKER_02 11:03

Yeah, let's dive in a little deeper on that. I know that the table mic, as you've got it positioned on the table now, laying horizontal on the surface, um, if you put it in that mode where it's automatically searching for the dominant talker, that person who's talking at that time, um, it will isolate one of the eight beam-forming microphones that are embedded into the top of that table mic and really rejecting the noise at those off-axis locations aside from the the direction that that primary talker is working and speaking at that moment. How do you advise patients um with regards to gatherings? What what what sorts of adaptations do they need to make with the people that they want to hear in a social or business application when using the table mic?

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Yeah, I think the the great thing about it is that they don't necessarily have to make any adaptations because the microphone is is kind of doing that for them. Um obviously it's not gonna pick up somebody across the room from them, but you know, everything that we do, it should be because we've listened to the patient and listened to what they're having trouble with. And if they say, you know, Sunday night we have big family dinners and it's a struggle for me because I can't hear, you know, my granddaughter who sits at that part of the table, right? So you can help them to understand the layout where they're having difficulty and really help them to understand, okay, this is how you're gonna best use this technology so that you can hear better in the situations where you're struggling.

SPEAKER_02 12:36

Yeah, it's got a wireless range of uh 10 meters, give or take. So I think your your key point takeaway one on telling the patient is that you're putting it in the location so that you're allowing those eight beam-forming microphones to do their work and be able to capture as many of the different voices that might participate. Do you advise the patient to maybe uh alert if they're family members or business colleagues who know that they're using the device regarding um turn taking?

SPEAKER_00 13:09

I think that's always important. I always talk to my patients about being advocates for themselves because if if they don't, if they aren't that, then it's going to make life more difficult for them, right? They're already struggling to hear in certain situations. So I do think it's important for them to have conversations when they're comfortable doing so, um, to to ask that. Yeah, to ask that of people because when they're talking on top of each other, the microphone's not going to quite know exactly what to do, and that could create some difficult situations.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

Right. That's that's what I was alluding to is that if people are talking simultaneously, the beam former is going to go to the louder talker. Right. And and so that may not always be the target. Sometimes the loudest voice is the one you don't want to hear. Exactly. And so um just instructing, as you said, you have to do it, you know, you don't want to make a big deal about it, but you want to just have them be their own advocate, as you said, and just instruct people. I'm using hearing aids, I'm using this table might as accessory, and I'd prefer that you know not we we're not all talking at once. Right. And that's good for everyone. Absolutely. But especially in that that automatic automatic beamforming mode um where it's searching and it and it will, it's capable, as you said, of adapting very quickly. But if people are talking over each other, that's one challenging time for that. And is there another option uh for that when people uh you know there's a limited number of people that you want to hear, or if people are kind of talking over each other and you want to um suppress somebody?

SPEAKER_00 14:39

Yeah, absolutely. Um that might be my favorite part of it. So you can easily uh choose which direction you want to listen to, and you can actually choose up to two simultaneous directions that you want to listen to. So if you have a loud talker over here that you've decided not really interested in what they're saying, but two folks right there that you are, you can absolutely do that so that the mic is picking up on those people that you are most interested in hearing.

SPEAKER_02 15:06

Yeah, I and I think the use case for that is the restaurant where you're going with one or two people and there's a really loud, boisterous talker behind you, and you don't want it searching in that automatic mode. And I think some patients might not even be aware that that's a feature because they they they toggle between the different modes on the top of the device, and it goes from an omni-directional, that is, like it sounds from every direction, versus that uh search and destroy, if you will, find the talker that you want to hear. But by holding their finger in the direction of the up to two people that they want to prioritize and fix, uh they just hold that and then the lights go on and they and they fix in those locations. So it's ideal for a dinner or a meeting where you have two people in the midst of other uh noise, a sports bar, yeah. Uh and uh and let it just freeze those directions and it's a great, great uh product for that.

SPEAKER_00 15:58

It is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:59

What else about it? What other app uh uh uh one application I wanted to talk about was you know, we've talked about in the past uh with uh beginning with Livio AI and extending now to Genesis AI, that in the hearing aids there's a sensor that can track motion, physical activity, fall detection. We've talked about that at different uh podcasts. In the table mic, there's actually a sensor that automatically adjusts those microphones when you're wearing it around your neck, as you mentioned. So the device, as soon as it's worn on the lavalier like you have there, it will just uh activate that mic on the top. And so it's really smart technology to know whether it's laying down or standing up.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Very much. Yeah. Another thing that I really love about it is I actually had it plugged into my computer the other day. I was having to do some continuing education, and you know, nobody else in my house really wanted to listen to that. And so I had it plugged into my computer and it streamed directly to my hearing aid. So that's a great feature as well.

SPEAKER_02 16:59

Absolutely. Computer or even uh one of our patients um uh was fitted Justin Osman. He's talked about, he's been on the podcast a couple times now and he's talked about this. He's emphatic and passionate about this. But before, when he left Minnesota to fly back to his home, and I think he was heading to Utah, um, he had figured out that he could plug the table mic into the audio output jack on his TV monitor on the seatback and the plane. And he said for the first time he could really enjoy uh a movie on the plane by having the sound streamed and adapted automatically for his hearing loss. Okay. Just like that. And and uh so so our patients are finding creative ways to use this. Justin Austin uh Justin also rather um adapted for use in the car to find a position that enabled him to really set the table mic in a location that would work for passengers in the front seat and the back seat, and and really figured out ways to try to have a mounting mechanism so it wasn't flying all over the car, but enabled him to use it more effectively. And he swears by uh the table mic. And I've got a couple other patients who say it's their favorite accessory and even uh transforms their experience with their hearing aids, just as you've alluded.

SPEAKER_00 18:14

Well, yeah, and I mentioned signal-to-noise ratio earlier. The table mic improves signal-to-noise ratio by a little over seven decibels, and we know that every decibel of signal-to-noise ratio improvement significantly increases our word recognition. So I I mean I think that we need to be talking about these with so many patients, and I'll go into a little rabbit hole for just a moment. I think that our accessories, by and large, are underutilized because I think that providers who don't use them often, who don't recommend and use them, may feel a little uncomfortable with the technology. So I would really encourage everyone to get some, get your hands on some, play with them, realize how easy it is to pair them, to use them, because once you get comfortable with it, you can be comfortable talking to your patients about it and make sure that they're getting the most out of their hearing aids with these accessories.

SPEAKER_02 19:06

Completely agree. I think that level of confidence that the professional has to have just to know how to go through that pairing process. One pro tip for the table mic, I'll tell you, is that um you can pair it directly with the instruments or you can pair it in the software or in the user app. I typically will pair it, and I just went through this last night with a patient, where with with the table mic, and and I was doing it via telehealth and describing to him the process, but I typically will do it by just pairing directly to the instruments because one one one use case is the patient can even leave their phone behind. I know that's blasphemy. We all travel with our phones, but but shut uh the the pro tip is shut the phone off or shut Bluetooth off on the phone, then the pairing with the table mic. You you you know, you can't fight with the the phone uh for who owns the pairing relationship at that point. So shut the phone off or shut Bluetooth off, turn the table mic on, flip it over, press the Bluetooth button, hold it, it flashes blue, and then turn your hearing aids on, put them on top of the table mic, and they go from blue to green in 30 seconds or less. Very quick. And it's paired. And then you can control the volume and power up and power down. Anytime you power up the table mic and you have the devices, it takes over as the primary input. I like to call it a third ear.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:31

And then um uh and you can control it either onboard the hearing aid with a uh onboard the table mic with a volume control adjustment or going through toggling through those modes or in the user app. It's really a multi-purpose, multi-function tool.

SPEAKER_00 20:45

It is. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 20:46

It's my favorite as well. Yeah, but we have a couple other show and tell items. So what what do you want to talk about next?

SPEAKER_00 20:51

I think uh another one of our very popular is the very uh easy to use remote control. And what's so great about this is for those people who don't have smartphones, still walk in your office with a flip- I know that they're they're out there uh with the flip phone. Um, but they want to be able to easily change programming, uh, stream with their television streamer, enable that, but not really have to use the onboard controls because maybe they have dexterity issues and it's difficult for them to find those controls. So we can turn the hearing aid up and down, we can start streaming, we can go to our favorite program. So um it's it's tactily very nice to use, it's discrete, it can fit in your pocket. So it's it's really uh a multi-uh purpose, I think, uh tool that we need to be keeping in mind for those patients who could benefit from it.

SPEAKER_02 21:42

Yep. So you've got volume control up and down, you've got uh program button, and then there's a there's a fourth button on there too. Talk a little bit about that one.

SPEAKER_00 21:52

Yep. So this can be programmed to uh start and stop streaming, as I mentioned. So um When we have an accessory, our TV streamer, as we talked about, almost every patient should walk out the door with, in my opinion. We have to have a way for it to start and stop streaming. So we can do that with our onboard onboard controls. But this could be a very easy way, reach into our pocket, grab our remote control, and start streaming without having to really touch anything on our devices.

SPEAKER_02 22:22

Excellent. And I think it, you know, it's really sort of a secret weapon for those, as you said, there are patients who don't have a smartphone or don't want to use it all the time. They're not, it's not tethered to them like it is for many people. I say good for them to uncouple. I'm trying. It's one of my New Year's resolutions, is to try to be less dependent on my smartphone. But but I really think that ability to uh in a very nice size, it's not remote controls like you have there for those watching on the YouTube channel, is um, you know, it's a trade-off. You don't want it to be so small as to then not be uh easy to use for people that have neuropathy or or arthritis or dexterity issues. But I think it's a really nice look and feel. It is and a simple, straightforward functionality that provides that very simple and addressable, programmable, as you said, to start and stop streaming and then to do the things that m every patient wants to do, either to turn the volume up and down, to uh change programs. Can you even um uh program that button to activate edge mode?

SPEAKER_00 23:29

You can.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

Yeah. So so what you're saying is that for those patients who are fitted with the technology but don't want to double tap or are uh don't feel comfortable doing that, or don't want to always carry their phone around to hit edge mode, they still have that functionality to easily use that with a remote control and discreetly. So cool. Yeah. What else? Any any other um tidbits on that remote control? Because I think that one is uh underutilized, underappreciated, but very functional uh device.

SPEAKER_00 24:01

Yeah, no, I I completely agree with you. You know, when when you're in a meeting, work meeting, you don't want to appear like you're on your phone, right? Yes. If you don't want to change the volume upright. So if you wanted to, and and it you might not necessarily want to double tap or or you know, um also engage with your hearing aids when you're in a group for those people who who might be self-conscious about this. So it's a great thing for perhaps a business person or someone involved in those kinds of meetings so they still have control. Doesn't look like they're tuning out and they're on their phone when they shouldn't be, et cetera. So I think um I I agree. I think it's an underutilized tool that we need to keep in mind.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

Oh, I couldn't agree more on such a valuable point you just made. And and looking disrespectful or distracted in a business meeting, I would also argue another use case for that, a small remote control like that is place of worship in church. Oh, absolutely. You don't want to whip out your cell phone in the middle of a sermon. Yeah. But if you want to, and the and the professional, let's say on the RIC RT, um if they've enabled you with a telecoil program, you could also use uh to turn the the T-coil functionality on with that remote control so that then they could uh could hear in that place of worship as well. Absolutely. So lots of functionality on that, really embedded in a very simple device. Yep. Okay, what's next?

SPEAKER_00 25:22

All right. So we have two different uh remote microphones. And so one is going to give us a few more options as far as uh what we can do with it. Telecoil is one of those that you mentioned earlier. So place of worship is a wonderful example of if you are in a looped community. There are lots of places who are looped, um, and you and you maybe you don't have telecoil in your hearing device.

SPEAKER_02 25:48

Small custom devices.

SPEAKER_00 25:50

Yep. That's one way that you can still access the loop system within your community, within the theater, place of worship, what have you. Um, Bluetooth, et cetera, on this one, you can increase the volume control. Um, but it's also a great uh I've I've recommended these a lot for patients who struggle with uh car. You mentioned Justin using the table mic earlier, but you know, grandparents who might pick up their grandchildren from school in the afternoons and they struggle to hear them in the backseat. What a wonderful tool to use to be able to have conversations and you know, still be safe, eyes on the road, um, but still be able to hear what you need to. Um so uh wonderful tools, both of them.

SPEAKER_02 26:32

Yeah, I I think you've hit on a very important point. I was just having a conversation uh this week with a patient of mine who loves his hearing aids. He has a severe to profound loss, but they he and his wife um do like to take road trips and he will sometimes be the driver, sometimes she will. But the road noise can be an issue, and and he it's inconvenient, if not dangerous, to have him having to look to see her with a severe to profound hearing loss, especially when he's driving. And um or or vice versa, when she's driving and and he wants to get a better signal-to-noise ratio. Yeah. That table mic, um excuse me, that that remote mic, excuse me, or the table mic. The table mic's sort of the the utility infielder of our accessories, but but those remote mics can really work well in a car on a road trip to help that person have the best signal-to-noise ratio experience beyond what hearing aids alone can do.

SPEAKER_00 27:29

Yeah, I actually used it in that exact use case. I took my daughter on a road trip uh to visit a college recently, actually, and she's a low talker. And I'm I'm driving, and I some, you know, I think she gets aggravated sometimes. So I'm like, wait, can can you repeat yourself? What? She's like, Mom. So I actually had her wear the remote mic around her neck so that I could hear her better and uh not have to ask her to repeat herself constantly.

SPEAKER_02 27:54

Yeah. I mean, it it again that you talked about the TV streamer. I think transportation in an automobile is another area where accessories can help save relationships.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

So you mentioned, and I want to again just uh uh emphasize that the larger remote mic plus that you showed for those watching on the YouTube has that telecoil function. So let's say a patient wants to use the RIC, the M RIC, the smaller one. They like that that smaller form factor that doesn't have a telecoil on board the RIC. Um they can use this remote to give the telecoil functionality if they have an educational setting or a place of worship or some other meeting space that is looped.

SPEAKER_00 28:37

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 28:38

And then custom, which you already alluded to, um they they can have the benefit of cosmesis with that telecoil performance. We're we're kind of future-proofing and also backwards compatibility. And I don't mean to say telecoil is backwards, it's it's sort of a a functionality that I think a lot of people who are thinking wireless is going to save the world. T-coils in many communities, if people, as you mentioned, uh a wired, uh looped community, um, they already have uh invested in the infrastructure, and that solution works very well and will continue to work very well for a lot of people. So that that remote mic plus really can provide that functionality even for hearing aids that themselves aren't come aren't uh equipped with T-coils.

unknown 29:24

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:25

But you also have one more, the the final accessory in your uh packet today.

SPEAKER_00 29:30

Yeah, so this is our mini remote mic, and as you can see, for those watching, uh a lot smaller, significantly about half the size of the remote mic plus. And uh this is uh a wonderful example of uh the car situation we were talking about earlier. Perhaps a place of worship that isn't looped, and you want to, you know, hear your uh your minister or whomever, uh, you can ask them to wear it, put it on their lapel, wear it around uh a lavalier, and you can hear just like they are, you know, that close to your ear. So it's a wonderful tool, um, I think for a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 30:07

And very discreet.

SPEAKER_00 30:08

Very.

SPEAKER_02 30:09

So, you know, I I really think and I really appreciate your coming on the podcast today to talk about this uh compendium of accessories that we have that work with our wireless products, that provide an overlooked functionality where a lot of times patients aren't even aware that their devices have this compatibility with these accessories. Because sometimes, as you said, clinicians who are busy or uh don't really have the confidence to talk about the accessories beyond uh their devices, um, that they don't spend time making uh patients aware of what solutions might uh be available.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

Right. Yeah, and I know Michael Tees has joined you on the podcast previously and talked about uh marketing solutions. And so in in some of our offices, we have these beautiful displays where they have all of these accessories and so patients see them when they walk in and they ask their clinicians about them. So it's it's a great uh it's a great way to start the conversation to make patients aware of them prior to them even maybe walking in the back to have a conversation with the clinician about uh treatment plans. It's a way for also to keep it top of mind for the clinician as well. So I would recommend in your office, don't have these in a shelf or in the back in a box. Have them somewhere where they're they're front of mind for you. The patient can see them and start that conversation. Um it's almost like the asking for dessert, right? When a waiter comes by and just says, Would you like dessert? No, but if they bring a tray by with all these beautiful looking, delicious looking desserts, you're much more likely to say, Oh, yeah, what's that one? I want it. Um so just having them displayed in a way that you see them as the clinician, your patients see them and ask about them, I think is a wonderful opportunity for both your uh your clinic as well as the patient, and most importantly, the patient.

SPEAKER_02 32:05

Yeah, and I believe when we talked with Michael in those offices that are using more prominently displayed accessories and other supplies and things, that that really was an untapped revenue stream. So you have data in the offices that show for where they're using these displays, they're generating more revenue for them. Absolutely. And it is really more top of mind for both the clinician as well as the end user to be aware of what other solutions might be available. And really from a cost standpoint, what is the price of better hearing? Family members, uh, if they come in and they're waiting in the waiting area as well and think, TV streamer, this is available. You know, many of them would say, birthday's coming up, yeah, uh you know, holiday, uh, we're we're getting that for us. Yeah, absolutely. And it's really an investment in the family.

SPEAKER_00 32:57

And if you can demonstrate it in the office, I mean that's that's so powerful. It's so much different than saying, oh, this is gonna stream the sound directly to your hearing aids, where the patient might go, Well, you're I'm purchasing these hearing aids, you told me I'm gonna hear better. But showing them the difference between just hearing with your hearing aids, which absolutely will help, but listening through the TV streamer. I mean, so powerful.

SPEAKER_02 33:19

Yeah, and and the last point I want to make, and then we're out of time. I knew this conversation would go quickly, but you know, many clinicians often have a mindset where they think that these type of accessories, particularly the table mic and the remote mic and remote mic plus, are for people with more significant loss. And that just isn't the case anymore.

SPEAKER_01 33:41

It really isn't.

SPEAKER_02 33:41

Um, you know, I say that compared to my parents, I'm less stigmatized by hearing loss and the use of hearing aids, but I have higher expectations for what they can do in those situations where I need help. And this is not only the domain of those with severe or severe to profound hearing loss. I'll put a plug in for speech and noise testing can really help differentiate those patients who their audiogram may not suggest that they might have trouble that would benefit from a seven or eight dB improvement in signal-to-noise ratio. That's phenomenal. It is. But when you do SNR testing, you can quickly see and really help provide evidence for those patients who could benefit from this technology.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

Yeah. And most patients walk into our office saying they notice it in noise. That's where they have difficulty. So why shouldn't we be thinking of ways to help them in noise beyond what our exceptional hearing aids can do already? But this is just the the icing on the proverbial cake.

SPEAKER_02 34:40

Yeah, and so in the words of the philosopher of Pogo, I've seen the enemy and it's us in some respects. Is we have to have we as the professional have an obligation to bring the best technology for hearing and for those patients who have difficulty in noise, who have difficulty because they have a large cavernous TV watching room and and and want to still get the benefit of that streaming directly from a TV streamer to the ear, or the all-around athlete, the table mic, which I think for both of us is our favorite accessory, that works as a portable TV streamer if they're traveling, that can work in all of the situations that you said. And I hope that if patients are listening, they have a better understanding, and I think you've given a very clear uh case to be made for when hearing aids alone are not enough. And I think professionals get out of that mindset, become familiar with the technologies that are available so that when you're presenting it to the patient, demonstrate it when possible and be aware of the different technologies. So I think you've done an outstanding job on doing that today.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 35:47

Thank you for joining us. And for listeners, if they're patients or professionals, if you enjoyed this episode, please like us, uh, share it with a family member or friend so that they can help advocate for better hearing. Uh if you have topics that you want us to cover on future episodes of this podcast, please send us an email at soundbites at Starkey.com. That is soundbites at Starkey.com. And otherwise, we greatly appreciate your listening or viewing this episode, and we look forward to future episodes. Thanks so much, Christy.

SPEAKER_00 36:18

Thank you for having me.