October 11, 2007

I really didn't see too many interesting client's this week. I did get to follow-up with one of my previous client's though. We originally saw him in September, but could not complete the evaluation due to excessive cerumen. He came back to the clinic on Wednesday for a complete evaluation, clean ears and all. We found that he client had a significant hearing loss that began at 500 Hz and sloped to a profound hearing loss at 8000 Hz. The client was very interested in amplification, so we recommended the element 8 in the Moxi. He took the literature home and said he would call back if he decided to purchase the hearing aids. From the case history and general conversation with the client, I would say that he will purchase the aids. He stated he was having difficulty not only with background noise, but that it had progressed that he was now having difficulty hearing in "ideal" situations. I really do hope to follow this client through this process.

I wanted to find an article about elderly patients and their hearing aids, and I found one in which they examined a holistic model for matching high-tech hearing aid features to elderly patients. The study looked at matching the hearing aid features specifically to the client and stated we must look at the client's communication, physical, psychological, and social demands. The article provides a check list of different areas that we should assess. This is a really interesting article and I suggest everyone take a look at it to get an idea of some areas we may want to pay attention to.

Reference:
Johnson, C.E., Danhauer, J.L., & Krishnamurti, S. (2000). A holistic model for matching high-tech hearing aid features to elderly patients. American Journal of Audiology (9), 112-123.

If you would like to read this article, please click on the following link...
http://aja.asha.org/cgi/content/abstract/9/2/112?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=1&andorexacttitle=and&titleabstract=Hearing+Aid+Technology&andorexacttitleabs=and&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&fdate=1/1/2000&resourcetype=HWCIT&eaf