Question
I do paper audiograms and use my audiometric equipment in stand-alone mode. Why should I consider transferring audiometric data to Noah?
Answer
Moving away from paper can revolutionize both your clinical workflow (it improves testing speed, accuracy, and convenience) and the patient experience (it’s a more inclusive, transparent and professional experience).
Equipment Setup Options
A connected setup allows you to store audiometric data in Noah without having to manually enter it (including tympanometric data, acoustic reflexes thresholds, pure tone audiometry thresholds, speech testing scores, and otoscopic images).
All audiometers and tympanometers fall into these five categories:
- Stand-Alone: no connection to PC;
- PC-enabled: easy, one-push data-transfer to PC (after saving on device);
- PC-based: computer triggers stimuli and stores results;
- Hybrid: can be controlled by either the computer or the control panel;
- Live view: uses PC screen as a monitor.
Clinical benefits
- Efficiency: it’s much faster to press “store” than it is to manually record a threshold;
- Accuracy: there is far less opportunity for user/tester errors;
- Convenience: who wants to waist energy manually recording audiometric data?!
Not to mention the automatic calculations for things like pure tone averages, speech intelligibility index (SII) and the ability to compare data easily over time.
Patient Benefits
- Inclusivity: running video otoscopy and live tympanometry/acoustic reflexes on a patient-facing monitor is a much more inclusive and understandable experience for the patient;
- Transparency: the patient sees what you see, at the same time you see it;
- Professionalism: having a modern set-up and counselling on a colorful monitor is much more illuminating and engaging than a piece of paper.
Choosing the best option
Determining the best fit for your clinical environment is a mixture of clinical needs, integration with existing equipment, and personal preference. It might even be as simple using your existing equipment in a new way (a lot of older equipment is compatible with data-transfer) or buying a license to enable your equipment to have dual functionality.
Once you’ve used a connected setup, there is no going back; it is faster, easier and more accurate and provides a more inclusive, transparent, and professional patient experience.
Resources for More Information
For more information:
- View this AudiologyOnline course – Get Connected: The Benefits of Data-Transfer and Computer-Based Audiological Equipment
- Visit Inventis website https://www.inventis.it/en-na.
