Hearing Matters Podcast

Celebrating 200 Episodes: From College Radio to Global Impact

• Hearing Matters • Episode 200

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Two hundred episodes. Six years. One hundred twenty-one countries. The Hearing Matters Podcast celebrates a remarkable milestone in its mission to educate and connect the global hearing healthcare community.

Host Blaise Delfino's journey from college radio DJ to global hearing healthcare advocate encapsulates the power of finding your purpose. What began in a 400-square-foot family practice as a simple tool to answer patient questions has evolved into an international platform reaching thousands of hearing care professionals and patients alike. With early episodes designed to prepare patients for appointments and guide them through the hearing healthcare journey, the podcast created a seamless educational experience that transformed how patients engaged with their hearing health.

"The podcast absolutely positioned us as thought leaders in our community," Delfino reflects. "When prospective patients tuned in, it was a representation of the practice." This approach to patient education and experience proved extraordinarily effective, with fewer than ten hearing aid returns over five years—a testament to how education, transparency, and patient-centered care create lasting success in healthcare.

Throughout the podcast's evolution, Delfino has observed significant shifts in hearing healthcare: the emergence of deep neural networks and AI in hearing devices, the growing importance of telehealth options, and increasing patient demand for transparency and best practices. "Today, now more than ever, the hearing care professional plays such an important role in the patient experience," he emphasizes, highlighting how the relationship between provider and patient remains central despite technological advances.

Looking toward the future, the Hearing Matters Podcast is launching a provider locator tool to connect listeners with qualified hearing care professionals in their communities, expanding into speech-language pathology topics, and continuing to bridge the gap between education and action. For hearing care professionals and patients alike, the message remains consistent: "Continue to lead with your heart. Continue to keep your why as your North Star. Every day that you go into that office, reflect and think to yourself: I have the opportunity to change someone's life."

Share these episodes with someone who might be struggling with hearing loss – your recommendation could be the first step in their journey toward better communication and connection.

Connect with the Hearing Matters Podcast Team

Email: hearingmatterspodcast@gmail.com

Instagram: @hearing_matters_podcast

Twitter: @hearing_mattas

Facebook: Hearing Matters Podcast

Speaker 1:

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Speaker 1:

Welcome back to another episode of the Hearing Matters Podcast. I'm founder and host, blaise Delfino, and, as a friendly reminder, this podcast is separate from my work at Starkey. You're tuned in to the Hearing Matters Podcast, the show that discusses hearing technology best practices and a global epidemic hearing loss. I'm your host, blaise Delfino, and I would like to welcome you to the 200th episode. I cannot believe it. This is episode 200 of the Hearing Matters podcast and I have to tell you before hitting record today, I just reflected on the last six years of hosting the podcast, running the podcast with our team, spreading the good news of hearing healthcare and, oh my gosh, this is absolutely incredible. But I first need to just thank you, our listeners, our community, whether you're a hearing care professional, whether that be audiologist, hearing instrument specialist, audiology assistant, or you're a consumer wearing hearing technology, I want to thank you on behalf of our entire team. We are a small but mighty team. On behalf of our team, thank you so much for your continued support, for believing in us, for believing in our mission and joining us on our mission to raise awareness of the importance of hearing healthcare. Episode 200. I was really thinking about what do I want to say on this episode, what's the message we want to leave you with? And I want to reflect on the last six years but also talk about patient care, patient experience, the evolution of this podcast and really what you can expect the next 18 to 24 months. I have to tell you it is an exciting time to be a part of the Hearing Matters podcast and I think you're all going to just be really pumped for lack of a better term with what we have in the pipeline. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Episode 200.

Speaker 1:

We have listeners in 121 countries and 4,136 different cities. First of all, I haven't even personally been to 121 different countries, let alone 4,100 cities, and that just goes to show us the power of podcasting, of the internet social media. We are the most socially connected demographic and leaning into the podcast space. Especially when we started in 2019, it really was a way that we could spread the news of hearing health care, that we could educate consumers and professionals, you know, assist them in making an educated decision regarding hearing healthcare. So I want to start off, thank you, thank you, thank you, and I want to now lean into some, you know, personal reflection of why we started the podcast. It's incredible because, if you think about six years ago, podcasting was a thing. It was sort of really getting off the launch pad, and if you think about it today, it's almost like everyone has a podcast, and I love that. I think it's great from an expression standpoint. You know, businesses have them really to stay connected with their current customers, so I'm a huge fan of the podcasting space. So I want to share my experience in college radio and I've been reflecting prior to recording this episode.

Speaker 1:

In 2010, I started my freshman year of college at St Peter's College, which is now St Peter's University, located in Jersey City, new Jersey. Located in Jersey City, new Jersey and it was actually my father who recommended he was like hey, Blaze, check out the college radio station, and at that time I was heavily involved in music, so I really enjoyed audio engineering, audio production, storytelling, things of that nature. So I actually this is when I met. His name is Professor Joe Lamacchia. So, professor Lamacchia, if you're tuned in. I hope you are. Thank you for getting me started on this journey. So I hosted a show called Ride and Solo and the theme of the show was highlighting solo independent recording artists, because I was one of those and I had the opportunity to open up for different national touring acts. And when I would play these different shows, it was an opportunity for me to be like, hey, I host this college radio show, let's have you come on, let's promote your music, and it was just so much fun.

Speaker 1:

I think back to those early times in college radio and again, this was 2010 when I started to now, which is 2025. First of all, 15 years. I'm like I have been behind the mic for 15 years and I'm so grateful for this opportunity. I'm so grateful that I'm able to use my voice to spread the good news of hearing health. But I've really been reflecting on the early years of college radio and I have a few of those early show recordings. They were okay. They're not as good as the Hearing Matters podcast today, but you evolve, you grow up and you learn actually how to host a show.

Speaker 1:

And then I transferred to East Stroudsburg University, so I was at St Peter's College for about two years. Then I transferred to East Stroudsburg University because I changed my major from communications to communication sciences and disorders most commonly known as speech-language pathology. So then I also hosted the same show, ride and Solo, on 90.3 WESS Again same theme, but it really was at East Stroudsburg University when I started to lean into having different entrepreneurs and business owners on the show and really expanded the theme of Ride and Solo from not only independent recording artists but entrepreneurs what does that look like? Not only self-made, but those who work for organizations, who are making an impact. So I've always said and I I've learned vision has different versions. So from that first version of Ride and Solo to where we are today with the Hearing Matters podcast, it's been a wild, incredible ride.

Speaker 1:

So why the Hearing Matters podcast? So it was 2019 when we started this show and it was a way in which we were able to duplicate ourselves as clinicians. So my father, dr Delfino, and I and my wife Autumn and our team, we talked about starting this podcast because there would be times when patients would call and I could hear the front office staff answering the same question essentially over and over again, and I thought you know what would be a good idea, at least I thought, was let's start a podcast and let's talk about addressing all of these frequently asked questions when patients call. Now here's the thing. You can go on a corporation's website and look at the FAQs, but not a lot of people are going to really waste their time and read through that or look through that, and some will, but for us, how cool was it? You know, we could say, mr and Mrs Smith, we actually have a podcast. It's called Hearing Matters Podcast and we address pretty much all these frequently asked questions. So I'm going to email you the link If you don't mind. Just listen back before your appointment.

Speaker 1:

Now, what this did for us is it got our new patient used to my voice, to Dr Delfino's voice. So you know, when they come into the office it's not like they're meeting us for the first time. So again, I am a firm believer of transfer of information process, of duplication. The Hearing Matters podcast was a way that our patients could become educated before coming in the office. They could continue their education following their first appointment, because we had episodes titled what to Expect at your Follow-Up Appointment. So we strategically set this up in a manner that was appropriate for our new patients, but also current patients. You know firm believer in always wanting to educate our patients, so we strategically recorded, you know, our earlier episodes to support those different appointments and, again, help those patients make educated hearing healthcare decisions.

Speaker 1:

Now, the current content that was released was, I would say, generic and we really wanted a way to diversify ourselves. And what do I mean by that? The current content in hearing healthcare was somewhat generic, and I'm not pointing any fingers or anything like that, it's just we want it to be different. We want it to put our own spin on the evidence-based practices, on the research that was coming out, and, being a family-owned private practice, we want it to sort of own our own distribution outlet in terms of this is who we are, this is our character, story and voice. So it really was a way to continue to diversify ourselves and it really was a culture play. And what do I mean by that? So, being a leader but also running the private practice, I understood that culture was a common set of values and beliefs and I'm big into creating community, ensuring that as an organization, as a small business, your people are all rowing in the same direction, and the podcast was something that our team could really rally behind.

Speaker 1:

I really wanted to avoid the mundane of Gerber's e-myth. The process of business is so important. You build the process and then you manage that process. But with the podcast, it was a way in which our team could be creative, could innovate, and this turned into actually having podcast days with our patients who were fit with technology, so they would actually come on the show and share their experience. So we would do this quarterly and so we started in 2019. I would say the podcast days started in about, I would say, the tail end of COVID. Yeah yeah, about end of 2020, early 21. And every quarter we would schedule a podcast day. We would have about five interviews per day and we would schedule them in such a way where every guest had about an hour and we essentially shut down the office, like we would not see patients that day. But we built this in.

Speaker 1:

So what did this do? This actually gave our team something to look forward to. While we were fitting our patients and implementing the different follow-up appointments, we were learning different things, and it allowed me and Dr Delfino to sort of banter back and forth of like, hmm, maybe we want to talk about this topic or that topic. So it was a lot of fun. We would have refreshments for the patients and it was just a really great time. And I think our patients appreciated it too, because, again, they shared their stories. Some of these were new hearing aid users, some of them were current hearing aid users and we wanted to show our new patients, of course, but also our current patients.

Speaker 1:

This is a community. We are not just a transactional organization. We really love what we do and we always want to push the needle forward in terms of moving the industry forward and providing you, our patients, with the most updated news as it relates to hearing healthcare. And, of course, the Hearing Matters podcast absolutely positioned us as thought leaders in our community. We were able to, and are able to, talk fluently about hearing healthcare topics. So when prospective patients tuned in, it was a representation of the practice. This is all original content. I think back 200 episodes. My goodness, my wife Autumn and I we were calculating how many hours we've all put into this and it's a lot, but so grateful for it. I don't think of this as a job. I mean, this is really a passion of mine to educate everyone on hearing healthcare. So, of course, the Hearing Matters podcast positioned our private practice and us as clinicians, as those thought leaders.

Speaker 1:

And the other challenge that we wanted to address was, while we were open six days a week so we were seeing patients on a Saturday we wanted to ensure how can our patients have access to us 24-7. And that's exactly what our YouTube videos did, that's what our website did, but, most importantly, that's what the Hearing Matters podcast did, because new patients coming in maybe they had that appointment on Monday they could tune into the podcast on a Saturday or Sunday tune in coming in. They've been educated on the different brands of hearing technology, the different styles, the different technology levels. They've maybe learned about cognition and untreated hearing loss. So this podcast has been working for us, not only for, you know, in the earlier days, audiology services, but we hope now that this podcast works for all of you, the hearing care professional. So when a patient tunes in and they decide to take that step towards better hearing, they're going to go to hearingmatterspodcastcom, put their zip code in our provider locator, which, exciting, is coming very soon. That's one of the surprises, but I'm going to share it because it's awesome. You go to hearingmatterspodcastcom, patient, puts in their zip code and they find a hearing care professional near them. That's what I'm so excited about. That, again, is a way in which we are able to make a global impact, and I'm so, so grateful.

Speaker 1:

So just wanted to dive in to why we started the podcast and personally reflect on the earlier days. And now I want to lean into private practice experience, and I know that we have a lot of private practice owners who tune into this show and I will say I am loving what I am seeing in the industry right now. There are so many hearing care professionals and private practice owners banding together and talking about different innovative business strategies and how are you navigating X, y and Z? And I love to see that because, of course, we have the technology today to do so. But it's this culture, it's this community, and I'm so loving what I'm seeing. So I really want to just lightly and briefly touch on the challenges we overcame, especially during COVID, because we were, of course, in the earlier stages of the Hearing Matters podcast during the COVID pandemic and I hope that if you're tuned in, you can learn how to take an adverse or negative life event.

Speaker 1:

Covid threw our organization for a tizzy quote unquote and I think it threw a lot of businesses for a tizzy because you're like, how the heck do we navigate this? But I hope this kind of gives you some insight and also the different seasons of life. So COVID was absolutely a winter season of business, right, because we were shut down for almost four months. So it was absolutely a scary time. In practice, I really thought to shorten the curve. We were going to be closed for two weeks and honestly I thought, oh, this will be great, we can do some painting in the office. Well, we definitely did painting in the office and then some, because we were closed down for quite some time.

Speaker 1:

But when I'm getting at is we absolutely leveraged the Hearing Matters podcast. So we knew we knew that patients who presented with untreated hearing loss were at an increased risk of loneliness. And we are absolutely in this loneliness epidemic. We're all going to be lonely if we don't stay connected. Facetime text, the whole nine yards, and during that time COVID was so new I was like, are we able to be all together? I don't want to get my parents sick. So there was all that really anxiety ridden of can we actually record our podcast in person. So we did end up recording one Hearing Matters podcast episode per week in person. We recorded that in the home studio I built actually my parents' home. So we wanted to ensure that we were using our time wisely.

Speaker 1:

But when I talk about that loneliness epidemic, we wanted to ensure that we were staying connected with all of our patients. So we would record the episode, I would edit them we still edit them in-house today and then we would upload them to the platform and then email these episodes to our patients and obviously our patients would follow us on Facebook and different social platforms. So it was a way in which we were able to show all right, everyone, while we are physically closed down, we are still available and let's use this time all of us to educate ourselves on hearing healthcare. We'll keep you updated. Again, it was another distribution outlet that we could keep our patients updated of what we've got going on. When are we going to reopen Things of that nature? But I'm really proud of what we were able to do with the Hearing Matters podcast during that time.

Speaker 1:

Again, vision has versions. If I told you that when we first started the Hearing Matters podcast, we would leverage it as a sort of a news outlet for our patients during a pandemic. Forget it, you know. So I would encourage you, as hearing care professionals, continue to think outside of the box. You don't need a pandemic to really do that and think differently. But you know, not only are you working in the business, but when you're working on the business, think of different ways that you can leverage your current media. So yeah, that's again. I just wanted to kind of share that experience because, again, we have six years of experience hosting the Hearing Matters podcast.

Speaker 1:

I wanted to start with our why and now go into, as we've been talking about, the private practice experience. When we first started the podcast again 2019, autumn, my wife she was our director of operations and during our staff meeting she would always say by 2020, majority of consumers are going to make their decisions based on the experiences that they had at said organization. And if we look five years later, that's absolutely true. I mean, as humans, we are so much more prone to sharing a negative or adverse experience at a business than a positive one, right? So that's why it's so important us hearing care professionals, whether you're in clinic, whether you work for an organization, always represent yourself to that highest degree of I want this patient or this client to have the best experience possible and, of course, you need to be genuine. But we were really focusing on patient experience. And how does the Hearing Matters podcast and how does the Hearing Matters podcast and how did the Hearing Matters podcast positively influence that patient experience? Well, where you know the family's practice is located, where audiology services is located, it's absolutely. It has a lot of competition around. So what was going to be different about the experience that our patients had at our practice? Well, we were family owned and we really did try our best and I know the team there today does such a great job at providing that family feel and I really feel like our patients appreciated that, because when our patients are working with us, you know you're supporting this small family business and we're so passionate about what we do and we love what we do. We always hope that our patients would feel that and leave feeling that same way confident really, about their decision moving forward with hearing technology. So again, patient experience. Not only did we have an accessible website, but the podcast. Really, hearing Matters allowed us to not only educate our patients, but our patients rallied around the podcast. Hearing Matters then also turned into a newsletter, so we had the podcast, we had the newsletter. I'm really proud of what we were able to do with such a small and mighty team and really educate so many patients, and I'm so grateful for that opportunity. So I want to say it was 2017, 2018.

Speaker 1:

Autumn and I were at the Starkey Hearing Expo and we had the chance to hear Dr Jill Caseworm give a talk. It was a panel and it was all about patient experience. And Autumn and I walked away from not only the conference but Dr Jill's talk with such excitement because she would say okay, when you have new patients, are you waiting for them at the front door? You know, think of when you get home and you have a dog. Your dog is so excited to see you. Are you acting like that when new patients come in through your door, or newer patients come in through your door? And as soon as we left that conference, that's exactly what we started to implement Every new patient, I was waiting. You know, we were waiting at that front door greeting them and I will tell you that made such a difference.

Speaker 1:

So, hearing care professionals, private practice owners, what is the experience you're providing to your patients? You don't need to show them how much you know about the technology. Again, favorite quote people don't care what you know until they know that you care. And that is so true in hearing healthcare. Sure, we could talk about attack and release, time and compression and DNN and adaptive directionality. Our patients have a few goals. They want to hear their spouse better, their family better. They want to go to a restaurant and not say huh what, hmm, and then socially isolate let's lean into that through motivational interviewing. So isolate, let's lean into that through motivational interviewing. So what is the patient experience? Also, during our time in private practice, ensuring that we're asking the patient what would you like to accomplish today, mr Smith? And then turning to Mr Smith's wife, mrs Smith Mrs Smith, what would you like to accomplish today? Be different, dare to be different. Push the needle forward in hearing health carers, hearing care professionals, because when you care, when you are focused on the patient in front of you, when you're focused on connecting them to their new hearing world, everything else is going to fall into place. If you take care of your patients, your patients will absolutely take care of your business. So I wanted to briefly touch on that patient experience.

Speaker 1:

But now leading into philosophy, building trust with patients. So in private practice, I understood and I learned real quick that people will do business with people they know, so that will get patients through the door. But then what? Sure, you could be this incredible organization everyone knows, but are you following that same system and process every single time and the result of that is high patient satisfaction, five-star Google reviews, happy patients, patients that you know that you implement outcome measures on, which should be every single patient, that they are improving in terms of their overall communication. Now, I get it. You cannot make everyone happy. You cannot make every patient happy, but building trust with patients we found to be so important.

Speaker 1:

And one way to build trust with your patients is listen twice as much as you speak. So again, they get in the door. But then what Will they like? Trust and respect you. And this is something that we always at audiology services at the private practice always wanted to ensure was companies will scale, they'll get too big and they will forget their why always kept our why at the epicenter of everything we do, of all opportunities, of all our guests coming on. How is this going to help our community, help our listeners make educated hearing healthcare decisions? So, building trust with patients we all talk about it, but how can we ensure that we keep our why at the center?

Speaker 1:

And to me, that's something that I learned very early on in my career is building trust and maintaining trust. One of the many ways to do that and really the most essential way to do that is keep the why at the center of everything that you do. That's why one of my most recent LinkedIn posts it was a photo of me and Mr Bill Austin and what I did when I took that photo. That was 2017, on my 26th birthday. So now you know how old I am. I'm still young. I'm only 33. I don't care.

Speaker 1:

So what I did is I strategically hung that photo up when I would put the key in the door open up the office for the day. It was the first photo I saw walking into the office and that centered me every single morning because it reminded me take care of your people. It reminded me take care of your people. Don't forget why you do what you do, and give 120% to every single patient that walks through that door. You know when someone comes to you with hearing challenges. That's a sacred trust and that's something that I learned. Remember your why.

Speaker 1:

Keep that at the center of everything you do, and hearing healthcare is absolutely built on trust. If you think about it, hearing is a sense that you can't see and that is why that the trust that you establish with your patients is essential. I'm so excited because there's an emphasis now today on best practices, which I love to see, because now we have happier patients. We have patients who are adopting technology much more than they were 15, 20 years ago. So, again, hearing healthcare is absolutely built on trust. This is something I've learned and continue to learn. Make sure that our patients feel heard. That's something that I learned early on in my career and continue to implement through that motivational interview, and really there is no secret formula to building trust. It's absolutely a feeling that people get and people can sniff out a fraud. It's intuition.

Speaker 1:

As a hearing healthcare professional, I encourage all of you tuned in because I know that probably all of our hearing care professionals tuned in you implement these essential best practices. Continue to do that, because that is only going to elevate our industry and that is really going to hopefully inspire those hearing care professionals who are not implementing best practices to do so. So you know the philosophy of building trust with patients. This is something I learned throughout my journey in private practice, but also hosting the Hearing Matters podcast. Your patients are coming to you with a hearing problem, hearing difficulty, listening challenges. Listen to them, build that trust and let them know that you are there for them. Make a strong recommendation that isn't in the best interest of your pocketbook but of their sense of hearing.

Speaker 1:

Let's go into balancing growth and quality. You know, in the last six years, just with the Hearing Matters podcast, we talked about growing pains and vision has different versions. So, as we're reflecting on my experience in private practice and again I share this all with you because for our hearing care professionals, tuned in those practice owners, I hope that you can even learn from my mistakes, shorten the learning curve and scale and provide even better experiences to your patients. So I want to talk a little bit about balancing growth and quality.

Speaker 1:

In the very early stages, we absolutely experienced growing pains, just like any other small business does. I mean, in the first eight months we grew 483%, 487%, I don't know. 83%, 487%, I don't know. We grew fast, we grew a lot. It was exciting, it was nerve-wracking, but it happened. We made it work. We were grateful for the opportunity that we have and one way to navigate the growing pains, and this is something that I ensured that was implemented and talked to the team about, especially for new team members. At the end of each day they're especially the first 90 days we would sit down and I would ask what was your peak and what was your valley of the day? And the reason I ask that is number one. I would never want a team member to go home thinking about work or a challenge that they experienced. So I was totally fine with staying an extra 15, 20 minutes in the office to ensure that our team member was able to show up best for their family when they got home. So this was something that we found to be effective and I always wanted to ensure that team members felt heard, because when you talk about your peak and valley, you can continue to course correct. That's how we grow and that's how we maintained that quality.

Speaker 1:

And this being episode 200, I think back. I'm like wow, all of the hours of research and listening and learning and implementing and pivoting, balancing growth and quality. How do you handle those growing pains? And it really came down to, especially in private practice if your team doesn't feel heard, your patients won't feel heard. If your team doesn't feel heard, your patients won't feel heard. And I, to this day, firmly believe that. Yes, as hearing care professionals, our position is so important because we are treating patients Well.

Speaker 1:

What about our front office staff members? They are that first line of defense. It is so important that they feel heard, that they have the tools that they need to help patients make an educated decision. And it's the first voice, it's the first person that they essentially are introduced to, engaged with on behalf of your practice. So, again, that's why we always wanted to ensure that our front office staff what do you need from us? How can we help? What tools do you need to make your job better? And front office, absolutely what do you need from us? How can we help? What tools do you need to make your job better? And front office absolutely helped with those growing pains and ensuring that the quality was maintained.

Speaker 1:

I talked about this earlier the transfer of information process of duplication. I learned that early in my 20s. I would absolutely recommend the E-Myth by Michael Gerber. It's an excellent read and what I learned from that book is we wrote down the entire process, step by step, for each and every patient touchpoint. So, like what does the first appointment look like? What about the first follow-up? What do those look like? Who does what? What was that process? You know scripting for the front office.

Speaker 1:

Oftentimes, as hearing care professionals, we're working in the business, but we need to take a step back and work on the business, not selfishly, but it allows you to see things through a different lens and ensure that, okay, if I want to grow and I want to maintain the quality, how can we do that? So, if I want to grow 20%, what do I have to do? What does my team have to do? How can I support them? How can I work on the business? Because when you're working on the business, it is absolutely an investment in patient care, patient outcomes, because your team has what they need and you have what you need and your patients are going to get the best experience possible. So a little reflection here of you know balancing growth and quality.

Speaker 1:

The Nazareth office so our private practice was and to this day, is still located in Nazareth, pennsylvania. The original office space was 400 square feet and now it's well over. I think it was like 1,200 square feet, 1,300 square feet at the same time, which to us, was like, oh my gosh. Now we can see more patients, help more people, and where I'm getting at is, again, this is still in the earlier stages of the Hearing Matters podcast and it opened up an opportunity for us to promote and talk about our new office space, but maintaining quality and growth. We had that office built out in two weeks because, again, being a small, family-owned private practice, we couldn't shut down for a month. So the construction crew I mean they were working 10-hour days. That was an incredible, incredible time. We had the new booth transferred in. That was really cool to experience an office build-out, because we knew that the reason we're doing this is so we can help our community, so we can help more patients and having this being episode 200, wanting to celebrate with you, our community, our listeners, thank you for allowing me now the opportunity to reflect back on the patients that I was able to work with one-on-one and establish great professional relationships with.

Speaker 1:

It's been a ride. It's been really cool and balancing growth and quality. Reflecting back now, a lot of practices will talk about their return for credit rate and I'm proud to say that during my time in private practice, which was five years, had less than 10 returns in five years, and I don't want to say I can't believe that, because we always, in every single day, ensured that we put the patient at the forefront of everything that we did. But I think it's testament of when you put the patient first, when you make a strong recommendation, when you fit the patient appropriately, appropriately conduct real ear measurement, all best practices, ensure that the follow-ups are handled beautifully, ensure that the patient gets connected to their cell phone and their app. This all has to do with balancing growth and quality. And thank you again for the opportunity for allowing me to reflect on this episode of the evolution of the Hearing Matters podcast. The experience I learned in private practice to now we're able to make a global impact is absolutely incredible and I just I'm so grateful. So thank you for allowing me the time to kind of share my private practice experience.

Speaker 1:

Six years of the Hearing Matters podcast, there's been quite an evolution in terms of technology, service delivery and patient expectations. I mean, when I first started in private practice, it really was the beginning of the Starkey Livios Such cool technology, it's like wow. Fall detection, step tracking, like all of these different new things that hearing aids can do, was such an exciting time and when you talk about the app integrations today, you went really from like a simple app to today where it's like you have a caregiver app. A caregiver can literally see what your social score is. Today we have deep neural networks and rechargeability. You know, I remember in the early days of private practice and, of course, you know the Hearing Matters podcast, the Z-Power chargers, and I think I mean the concept of them was brilliant. If you think about it to my hearing care professionals out there, the concept was brilliant because the Z-Power charger literally accommodated every single hearing aid manufacturer, which was so cool. I think that it was probably too early to market and maybe not enough testing was done. I don't know, but I just I think that the concept was so cool. We fit, I want to say, 10 patients, because when I started in 2017, then you know, a few of the manufacturers were coming out with their own rechargeable system. That was really cool innovation that, you know, I was able to witness early on in my career. So just the industry evolution, like technology, where we are today DNNs, artificial intelligence yes, we've had adaptive directionality, but it's so different today than what it was six years ago.

Speaker 1:

What about the service delivery model today? Telehealth and teleaudiology this is something that I think will continue to gain traction. I think that we have an opportunity as hearing care professionals to start to implement more telehealth and or hybrid models. Right, because when you fit a patient with their hearing technology and you have their first follow-up and you've done real ear measurement and you've made those really important modifications, and the patient says nope, you know they fit well, they sound great. You could schedule their second follow-up via telehealth. And then what does that do? That encourages the patient to get used to their app, to get used to using the app that correlates to their brand of hearing technology.

Speaker 1:

And this is what we did at our private practice and it helped tremendously, even service delivery as it relates to over-the-counter hearing aids. So, yes, otc, it's here, it's been here, we've had OTC for many years. How do you manage that? What we did and this is all through Hearing Matters podcast early days we had a package called the Patriot Package and it was prescription hearing aids and it was $899 for the payer of hearing technology. I believe that came with a two-year warranty one or two-year warranty, real ear measurement and three follow-ups, and that was a way in which that we competed with over-the-counter hearing aids because we wanted to ensure that these patients were still getting prescription hearing technology at a lower price point. But it introduced them to prescription hearing aids and at least they knew.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I am now connected with a hearing healthcare professional, so that was our model. You know OTC hearing aids today they're more sophisticated, but it is our belief that prescription hearing aids in the hands of the professional have the best outcomes. And if you've been tuning into the Hearing Matters podcast for six years now, you will know that is what we believe in. And I am an innovator, I am a visionary, I believe in patient access and affordability, but I also know, know, having a master's in communication sciences and disorders. We are social beings. We like to feel connected to other individuals.

Speaker 1:

So when we're talking about industry evolution, the hearing care professional today, now more than ever, plays such an important role in the patient experience. And this is what I've experienced throughout the past six years of the podcast. This is what I continue to experience working with other hearing care professionals in the industry. And then you know this is a great segue into patient expectations. There's a demand for transparency today. I mean there's always been a demand for transparency as it relates to consumerism. Let's be real here. But I think today, now more than ever, because we are the most socially connected demographic, especially as it relates to hearing healthcare patients can go to Google. They're going to be followed by these sponsored ads and the geo-targeting.

Speaker 1:

But I'd encourage you, if you are a consumer, when you do walk into your hearing care professional's office, pleasantly and kindly demand that transparency of what kind of best practices do you implement? Do you conduct real ear measurement? You know, sure they could have the system, but are they using the system every single day? That's really important. And again, I think that in today's day and age and having done the podcast now for six years, we've seen such an evolution, just with that patient transparency. And I love the fact that patients are now going into offices asking about outcome measures. And sure some hearing care professionals could say, well, they don't even know what real ear measurement is. I don't care, they're asking about it, which means that they care about their hearing health, they want to better themselves in terms of communicating with their loved ones and family. So I think it's great, kind of just wanted to briefly touch on the industry evolution there and I think what I would say I'm most excited about is the technological evolution and educating patients on how the technology works and why it matters. And what I learned early on in my career is, with patients, focus on the benefits of the technology first and the features second. I think that's so important. So, you know, in closing, some podcast lessons, some guest wisdom here, our team put together some questions that they had for me.

Speaker 1:

Let's go here with what is the best piece of advice I've heard on the podcast. My goodness, I learn something new every episode and I'm just so grateful that you know we have the opportunity to learn something new every episode. I would say the best advice was from Bob Berg. He's the author of the go giver. It was John David Mann and Bob Berg who coauthored that book. The more you give, the more you receive, and when you give with the intention of not expecting anything in return, that is truly when your business starts to really flourish. And how I was connected with the Go-Giver and Bob Berg is Matt Hay, when he was with Redux, visited the office and we actually had him on the Hearing Matters podcast. So that was really cool. So we came in, had him on the podcast. We showed him how we use the Redux and how it really helped our patient experience. But as soon as I read that book, I thought to myself, wow, so many of our colleagues should read this book because it really directly correlates to us giving the gift of hearing.

Speaker 1:

And so I would say the best piece of advice was from Bob Berg moment or guest insight that changed how I practice or think. Well, man, these are really good guys. I can't think of one single episode to answer this specific question, but what I will say is, when we started to host the podcast days and really focusing on consumer-driven episodes, it allowed me to gain deeper understanding of what patients are actually really truly going through, what that social isolation looks like. And just thinking to myself as an individual with normal hearing holy smokes I take this for granted every single day. So I would say that, even to this day, when we have consumers on you know, patients who wear hearing aids, patients who wear bone anchored hearing aids, cochlear implants it provides me with greater insight, understanding. It provides me with greater insight, understanding, empathy, and that, again, is one of the reasons why I'm so grateful for this opportunity to host the Hearing Matters podcast.

Speaker 1:

And then number three what are patterns that I noticed from interviewing experts? I would tell you the pattern is this we, as hearing care professionals, need to continue to step it up and kick it up a gear Because, again, when we were talking earlier about the demand for transparency as hearing care professionals, today, literally the pattern is this continue to implement best practices and for those who aren't, start to Because number one, it's under your scope. Number two if you're not, it is not in the best interest of your patient. Number three you're selling yourself short. Number four you're a hearing care professional, you should be implementing what is under your scope of practice and the tools that you need and are required to have the best patient outcomes. That's honestly, probably within the last two or three years, the pattern I've noticed interviewing experts on not only the technology but also individuals who are neuroscientists, things of that nature. It comes back to that patient care, providing the best patient care possible.

Speaker 1:

And I sort of wanted to add a fun element here. I wanted to read out a favorite listener message or review and this one came in last week. So, so grateful for this. Huge congratulations, blaise Delfino. As an early career audiologist from a developing country.

Speaker 1:

I found the Hearing Matters podcast to be more than just a resource. It's been a source of inspiration, guidance and community. Wow, thank you, thank you. Thank you so much, kelvin. That really means a lot to us. And then there's one more. This one was from Shelly. I love your podcast, blaise. Since I started listening to it a couple years ago, I don't think I missed many. You have covered every important topic in hearing healthcare. You have covered every important topic in hearing healthcare. You're so professional and compassionate. I always look forward to hearing the next episode. Wishing you many more years of success, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you. I cannot say it enough. Our team so appreciates it. I really need to shout out Autumn Megan.

Speaker 1:

We are a I always say we're a small but mighty team. We focus on the why, which is our North Star Assisting patients and professionals make educated hearing healthcare decisions. That is what we've been doing since the very beginning of the Hearing Matters podcast and just so grateful for the opportunity that we have to continue to educate the community. So, in closing, some advice and call to action for professionals. Here's what I think that we can do better as a field Continue to lead with your heart. Continue to keep your why as your North Star.

Speaker 1:

Every day that you go into that office, reflect and think to yourself. I have the opportunity to change someone's life, to reconnect a patient to their friends, to their family. We are in this to help people connect with life and for our patients. Please continue to join us on this journey. Every single week we release an episode and we're so grateful for the opportunity to do that. Our mission is to educate and I would encourage you be a Go-Giver, continue to be a Go-Giver.

Speaker 1:

And one way that you can do that is to share this message, to share future episodes with friends or family of yours that you believe may be struggling with hearing loss. You never know that you, sharing one of our episodes, could help them make that educated decision to schedule an appointment with a licensed hearing healthcare professional. And you know, very soon, very soon, we'll make an announcement about this. You'll be able to go to hearingmatterspodcastcom. Type in your zip code and you will be able to find a hearing care professional near you. So, episode 200 in the books.

Speaker 1:

I can't believe this. What's next? What is the vision for the future and the next 200 episodes? What does that look like the vision for the future and the next 200 episodes. What does that look like? Well, what I am excited is, of course, the Provider Locator on Hearing Matters Podcast, and we are also going to have a hearing screener on the website as well. So we are enhancing our website because we want to make more of an impact and connect consumers to licensed hearing care professionals, continue to educate, but we are going to be diving more into speech, language, pathology and communication sciences as a whole, because, if we think about this, communication is the exchange of ideas. So get ready and let's continue to hear life's story In closing.

Speaker 1:

I know I said it already, but I just want to thank you so much for the opportunity to raise awareness of Hearing Healthcare. Thank you for allowing us, for six years and 200 episodes, to share our passion, to share patient stories and to hopefully have connected you to a hearing care professional, and if you're a professional, I hope that you continue to find value in the content that we release. You're tuned in to the Hearing Matters podcast, the show that discusses hearing technology, best practices and a global epidemic hearing loss. You tuned in to episode 200. Thank you so much and until next time, hear life's story.

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Blaise M. Delfino, M.S. - HIS

Host