COVID-19's Impact on Hearing Healthcare: Grason-Stadler’s AMTAS Pro as Part of a Solution

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:06

You're tuned into the hearing matters podcast with dr. Gregory Delphino M blaze Delfino of audiology services. The show that discusses best practices, hearing technology and a growing national epidemic. Hearing loss. Good morning, dad. How you doing? Good morning. Blaze. Happy Sunday morning. Now, dad, I know I say this at the beginning of every episode, but I am truly very excited about episode 13, because during this episode, we are going to be discussing our implementation of automated audiometry specifically the Amtac pro by Grayson Stadler now, and task is an acronym for automated method for testing auditory sensitivity. Dad, you've been an audiologist for over 35 years. How exciting is this technology? It's really groundbreaking blaze. We have had some form of automated audiometry throughout the years, but this on-task from GSI has 15 years of research behind it. This is groundbreaking to say the very least dr. Delfino. I think it's essential to let our listeners know that automated audiometry does not replace the audiologist or hearing healthcare professional. I'm going to say that one more time. Automated audiometry does not replace the audiologist or hearing healthcare professional. Isn't that correct? Dr. Delfino? It is what it, what it does is it increases and maintains patients access to hearing health care by allowing the audiologist to oversee the automated program, to interpret the data, gives us the ability to see more patients more efficiently at a much, much more cost effective manner debt. I think it's really important to let our listeners know why we wanted to implement the antacid pro specifically automated audiometry at audiology services. Essentially, we thought to ourselves, and when we're presented with potential new equipment, we ask ourselves, what is the problem we're trying to solve as a team? And as a family, we came together throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and the shutdown that we experienced for almost three months. And we thought to ourselves, there has to be a solution that limits patient contact, but our patients could still have their hearing tested and their results reviewed and discussed with an audiologist or hearing healthcare professionals. So in the event, another global pandemic or shut down were to occur at audiology services. We are set up in a way that we are able to best serve our patients despite that current situation.

Speaker 2: 3:01

No, the cover story of this month's hearing journal really lays this out as well. Dr. Zang, who is the chairman of the hearing journal advisory board. He States that navigating the COVID-19 pandemic has given us the opportunity to reimagine the delivery of care and services, especially when it comes to telemedicine. As we move forward, the audiology community and hearing healthcare community as a whole must be willing to change how they approach their practice. So this is what the COVID-19 has presented us with this opportunity to rethink the way in which we do things and automated audiometry along with tele audiology are means by which we can achieve this end.

Speaker 1: 3:42

Absolutely. And having been in that position of closing down the office for almost three months with no patient contact, we need to think to ourselves, what does the future hold and how can we better serve and best serve our patients in the event? Another shutdown were to occur, maybe not in the next year or two, but what about 10 years from now, or potentially 20 years from now? So we are positioning ourselves and ensuring that we have systems and processes in place to best serve our patients. Now, additional reasons that we had audiology services are implementing automated audiometry are one. It allows clinicians to manage more than one patient at a time. And patients who visit our office for annual hearing evaluations, that specific patient would have their hearing tested using the amp tests. And the clinician would be able to clean and check the hearing AIDS, conduct any firmware updates, and essentially get the hearing AIDS cleaned up and updated. So when the patient is done with their hearing test, we could then reprogram and conduct real measurement on that patient. And dad, we've actually spoken to many of our patients regarding this technology and their thoughts about it. And about 95 to 97% of the patients that we currently serve said, yes, I would be comfortable having my hearing tested using the antacid pro and then having the results reviewed by you by dr. Delfino or a hearing healthcare professional. Now, dad, you and I both enjoy testing audiology equipment and hearing AIDS prior to implementing a specific piece of equipment in our office. We always ask ourselves, how will this piece of equipment positively influence our patients hearing healthcare and just overall experience at our office. Now, as I've stated, you have over 35 years of experience as a practicing audiologist. What are you most excited about with regards to introducing the antacid pro at audiology services?

Speaker 2: 5:47

The greatest advantage to this is that it allows us to do what we do best, and that is to communicate with our patients. It takes away some of the, the usual of a performing the basic wedding metric testing. And again, now it allows me to spend more time talking to the patient about the impact of the hearing loss, what steps need to happen as we move forward, how well they're doing again, it's that whole counseling aspect that we now have more time to give our patients.

Speaker 1: 6:14

And that's something that we all only have 24 hours of dr. Delfino his time. So how can we best serve our patients with the same 24 hours that other clinicians do have dad before we really deep dive with the task pro uh, we'd like to thank the president of Grayson Stadler. His name is Brent Nestle. We were actually connected to Brent. Um, thank you to Gary Rosenblum. Now, dad, we had the opportunity to speak with Brent about our interest in using the amp task pro and he, and a few of his team members educated us about the system and really the many benefits of implementing the antacid pro Brent, then put us in contact with dr. Sherman Lord and dr. Jenelle Burdette, who dad you've known for many years, because I mean, being in the industry for as long as you have dr. Burdette and dr. Lord have been in the hearing healthcare industry for both well over 30 years. So about two weeks ago, dr. Lord and dr. Burdette visited our office in Nazareth to set up the am task pro and they conducted in house training. What was that experience like that

Speaker 2: 7:22

Really interesting because, you know, I've had, I've had other, um, equipment suppliers out on I've had Sherman and Janell out before and having them go through conventional audiometric equipment is one thing, but now we're talking about a very different animal. It was clearly a different approach to setting the equipment up from the standpoint of how the patient was going to access the equipment to where we were going to place it to what was the best means for which the patients who ingress and egress from the booth, it was different. And yet very familiar

Speaker 1: 7:56

Did we put the[inaudible] pro

Speaker 2: 7:58

The MTS pro is located in our audio booth in one of the corners of our audio booth. And it's set up with a screen, the computer and the, uh, audio star,

Speaker 1: 8:08

The MTS pro or automated method for testing auditory sensitivity is a patient directed evaluation tool. And it uses patented test methods and accuracy algorithms to perform diagnostic or screening. Audiometry when we talk about patented test methods, you and I both know because of fader plugs. So you and I have a United States issued and approved patent. That is a very long and laborious process. Now we're talking about 15 years of research with the AmTrust pro. I mean, that's just incredible, especially with the accuracy algorithms, because of course, reliability is so essential when we're talking about audiometry clearly,

Speaker 2: 8:57

You know, and I had all those questions and concerns and trepidations when the instrument was being installed, as well as when I was speaking with the president of GSI, whether or not this was going to be able to give me information that was reliable, that was usable, that was consistent. So all of those concerns I had as we were initially setting, setting this equipment up at this point, I'm feeling very comfortable with what I'm seeing and the results that we're obtaining to kind of

Speaker 1: 9:24

Dovetail off a previous statement that you had made. Um, during this episode, the[inaudible] pro is a touch screen, but it is connected to an audio monitor, correct? In the event, we have a patient who has decreased vision or decreased dexterity. We wouldn't have their hearing tested using the amp task, correct?

Speaker 2: 9:46

That's correct. The M task is selected and GSI estimates that it's about 85% of your patient caseload can be tested with the AMTA house. And so that's really an onboarding task. You want to make sure whether or not this patient is capable or able to do the task. And there were certainly some children typically ages of eight or beyond that, or that may very well be able to perform the tasks as well.

Speaker 1: 10:10

Well, it's funny. And thank you for bringing that up dad, because dr. Burdette was telling us that she actually dropped off an antacid flex, which is different as compared to the[inaudible] pro. She dropped an AMD task flex off at a preschool, and the preschoolers were actually able to navigate through the hearing screening, which is pretty amazing because I think of, you know, my nephew, your grandson, he knows how to utilize the touchscreen capabilities of the iPhone and, um, things of that nature. So the[inaudible] pro is a touch screen. It is connected to a manual audiometer and dad, when we talk about quality indicators, this is something that when we were doing our research on the AAN task pro really spoke volumes to us, can you bring us through the nine quality indicators with the Amtrak

Speaker 2: 11:05

Last pro they're looking at a predictive accuracy. They're looking at predicted average, absolute difference. There's a masker or alert time per trial, false alarm rate, average test retest difference, quality check, fail rate ABG greater than 35 DB and ABG, less than 10 DB.

Speaker 1: 11:36

How essential and important are these quality indicators. I mean, this is absolutely incredible that this system has these non-quality indicators to ensure an accurate and reliable hearing test.

Speaker 2: 11:48

When you're looking at the data that's generated from the am task, you get a sense as to good of a test. It is, and it will tell you what graded good poor. And then you'll look at the quality indicators to let you know where there might be some concern, um, whether or not the patient has, uh, has, has been pressing the, or touching the screen when there was no tone present. And there is a note that appears on the screen telling the patient to, um, to continue to hit the continue button, because there has been a false alarm. It really gives you a sense of confidence that the data that's been generated is accurate and can be spoken of with a good deal of certitude

Speaker 1: 12:31

Dad. After the data is gathered, and task has a patented method of classification of audiometric findings. And this helps summarize the audio Grande based on configuration site of lesion and the severity of the hearing loss. Now, this gives further insight to the clinician, practicing audiologists on how to proceed with counseling and further testing if needed. I want to highlight further testing because you and I have discussed that at audiology services, we are going to absolutely conduct further audiometric testing in tandem with the task pro what further testing will be conducted

Speaker 2: 13:15

The amp task right now. Um, our version anyway, does not have speech and noise testing. So the quick sin, or just straight up speech and noise is not available. Um, so that is an addition that we will be providing as we do with all of our patients and Emmanuel modality. Um, we're also going to be doing Tims reflexes, um, all of those things prior to the test. But again, as, as we see, as we see the data from the MTS, if we have any questions or concerns, we can certainly verify or go back and check those areas. So it gives us a good indication as to what needs to be looked at further or whether or not we are w we can base our decisions on the information and the data that the[inaudible] has provided us with.

Speaker 1: 13:58

I have to say that having the antis pro at audiology services and implementing the additional testing is really what's in the best interest of the patient dad. Because when we talk about speech and noise testing, a very small percentage of hearing healthcare professionals are conducting speech and noise testing. Why is additional testing in tandem with the[inaudible] pro so important?

Speaker 2: 14:25

Because when we see patients off times, the concern is not that I don't hear, but that I don't understand. And I can't speak to that issue unless I have some empirical data to suggest further and to demonstrate to them where their difficulty is. So speech and noise for us is the way in which we are addressing the exact concern that the patient has brought to us. Absolutely very, very

Speaker 1: 14:52

Excited for this groundbreaking technology to be introduced at audiology services. And, you know, our entire team is excited to be the first and only audiology practice in the Lehigh Valley and surrounding areas that incorporates automated audiometry. And, you know, we're so excited to have technology at our office that truly does allow us to better serve our patients and dr. Delfino, uh, in tandem with our other research projects we have going on. Um, because again, it is so important. And for those who are current or future hearing aid users, or hearing technology users to team up with the practice that is implementing best practice, because individuals who implement best practice have the best patient outcomes. So important, dr. Delfino, as we conclude today's episode, what concluding statements do you have, or what other thoughts do you have to share with our listeners regarding the am task pro

Speaker 2: 15:59

The MTELs pro is going to be an essential elements to our menu of offerings in audiology and healthcare. It's going to provide us with the time that we need to spend with our patients. It's going to allow us to get more patients tested in a much more efficient way. It is how we need to look to the future as to how we are going to navigate a shrinking number of audiologists with an increased number of patients who need our help.

Speaker 1: 16:27

Absolutely. And dad, to dovetail off that, when we talk about the millions of Americans who present with untreated hearing loss and not having enough hearing healthcare professionals to treat those individuals, but also looking towards the future of audiology, not only automated audiometry, but also that remote programming or telehealth, I have to commend you. I mean, you've been in the field for over 35 years, but having grown up in hearing healthcare, one of our core values at audiology services is innovation. And if the antis pro doesn't speak to that core value of ours, that audiology services, then I really don't know what does, but for those tuned into episode 13 of the hearing matters podcast, please visit us in a few future episodes talking about our experience with the amp task pro, because we're going to be conducting our own in house research and sharing those findings with our listeners. Thanks for tuning into episode 13 of the hearing matters podcast, the show that discusses best practices, hearing technology, and a growing national epidemic hearing loss until next time here, life story.