- Hey guys, welcome back to the Dr. Cliff AuD vlog.
This is vlog number 25.
Of course, if you've missed any of my other vlogs,
go back and check them out as well.
But I have a couple of different things
I want to talk about today.
So I'm just going to jump right into it.
The first thing I wanna talk about
is the progress of the clinic,
and I can't really share updates about that right now,
but what I can tell you
is I feel like we're going to start
getting back on track here really soon.
So we'll be able to provide you with more
of those updates here in a few weeks,
which is what I'm hoping.
So stay tuned for that.
I really feel like we are headed in the right direction
with the new clinic.
So that being said,
the next thing I want to talk about is the infection rates
here in Arizona with COVID.
You know, I really don't like talking about COVID-19
a whole lot, but I feel like it's my responsibility
to kind of share what's going on with that
in relation to the clinic
and being able to receive audiologic care.
So here it goes,
if you've been watching the news to any degree
in the past week,
you would've noticed that Arizona has really,
really high infection rates over the course
of this last week, probably stemming from,
you know, Memorial day or whatever,
and then of course, you know, more testing,
you know, and regardless of what your belief is on
if this is a big deal or not,
whether it's a political thing or not is really irrelevant,
and what I mean by that is that when you get these
reportedly high numbers,
it leads to some individuals not wanting
to come into the clinic.
So regardless of if it's a big deal or not,
what it really comes down to is are people going to avoid
audiologic care because they deem it to be too risky
to come in and receive treatment.
Now there's nothing I can do about that.
If you are feel or anyone feels like it's not safe
to come into the clinic and receive audiologic care,
you know, that's up to you.
I can't tell you what to do, nor do I want to.
And if you want to avoid situations,
because you're worried that you're going to get infected,
I totally get it.
On the other hand inside of the clinic,
we've been very, very cautious on how we sanitize things.
So we're doing a ton of sanitation.
We're making sure to survey everybody
who comes in to the building to ensure
that they have not been exposed to COVID-19,
that they themselves are not infected,
that they're not running a fever,
that they're not having symptoms.
So all of these things, we're making sure of that,
and everybody's wearing a mask and my staff
were even wearing masks outside of the clinic
because we don't want them to get infected
on the outside and bringing that in with them.
Because if one person gets infected,
we basically consider all of us infected,
and then we're going to have to shut down the doors,
which is something that we don't,
or shut down the clinic, shut the doors,
which is something that we don't want to do, of course.
So, because of these higher infection rates,
I feel like it's important for me to share
what we're going to do.
And we're going to start doing more of the service.
So not having as many people coming in the doors,
we're still gonna do the same sanitation
that we've been doing.
Cause we're literally wiping down everything
with disinfectant and in between every single patient,
and we're trying to limit how many people
are in the building at any given time.
So when someone shows up for an appointment,
if they do have to come inside the building,
they call and let us know that they're there,
and then we literally go out and or call them and tell them
to come in and walk directly into one of our offices.
So they're not kind of,
co-mingling in a reception area space.
And then we try to limit movement inside of the clinic
as well with every patient who comes in.
So, you know, it's just something
we just gotta be precautious about it.
And I get that people are sick and tired of wearing masks.
Trust me, I am sick and tired of wearing a mask like this.
You know, it's great because you can see my mouth
through this little clear window here.
But at the end of the day, I talk a lot.
Obviously you guys know that.
And when you talk a lot with this,
it actually starts to build up condensation inside,
even though it doesn't fog up.
I mean, it's like literally just all of this hot air
coming out of my mouth
is creating like water inside of the mask,
which is incredibly annoying
and probably disgusting to look at
if you're on the other side of my desk.
So that being said, where do we go from here?
I mean, if this COVID thing
is just going to be a recurring theme
and people are going to be scared of coming in,
or, you know, for whatever reason,
we're not able to run clinic as normal.
It's not that I worry about the clinic
going out of business.
I think we're going to be okay.
There's enough individuals who feel safe enough to come in
so we can generate enough revenue to keep the doors open
and I can pay my employees.
But the question becomes is for the sensitive populations.
So the individuals who might have some respiratory issues
for some individuals who are on the older side
to where if they got infected,
it could be a life threatening thing
or even more so of a life threatening thing.
What do we do with them
not just now, but into the future
if this stuff keeps reoccurring
and that's what brings up this conversation
of remote diagnostic testing and fitting of hearing devices.
Do I feel like there's technology right now
that exists that we could utilize to do a completely
contactless testing and fitting sequence
following best practices?
I do not believe that that exists currently,
but I think that we're starting to get on the right track
and I'm going to share a product from a company
in this vlog that I think is on that right track
Aad will eventually have a full service option
to be able to do remote diagnostic testing.
Now, here we go.
I'm going to bring this into the frame here.
This right here is at-home test kit by Clementine.
Clementine Home is what it is.
And it's in this nice little sturdy,
like Pelican case this entire,
you know, tele audiology test kit.
So it can either be shipped or delivered to a patient's home
and they can actually administer their own testing
and then have a remote consultation with an audiologist.
And the thing that's really cool here,
and the arguments that a lot of people would have
against doing something like this would be
that you can't do a couple of things.
First off you can't do visual otoscopy,
you know, bone conduction testing is hard to do,
speech testing is something that's not even out there
right now that's available to do completely remotely.
So there are a couple of drawbacks
of this type of a test kit as of right now.
But if any company is going to figure that stuff out,
I think that this company is going to be one of them.
Why? Because they're asking me for my input
and asking me for what we would absolutely need
to be able to have a comprehensive test kit
that someone could use.
And that I would feel comfortable and that audiologists
would feel comfortable using on individuals
who cannot make it into a clinic or who are scared
to come into a clinic because of COVID-19
or whatever other virus ends up hitting the scene.
So you also have to worry about state laws as well.
Certain states require certain tests be performed
before hearing aids can actually be fit and dispensed, okay?
Now some states are more strict than others.
I can tell you in the state of Arizona,
it does require air conduction,
bone conduction, speech testing,
MCLs, UCLS as well as having, you know,
visual otoscopy and make sure that there's no obstructions
inside of the ear canal,
and this company I think is starting to head
in the right direction.
Why? Because I'm to this point,
unaware of any other company out there
that actually does visual otoscopy
meaning looking inside of someone's ears,
and this right here is their way of solving that problem.
So this is something to where a patient gets this
and they actually stick it,
and it's asking me here to take a photo of my left ear.
So I'm going to go ahead and put it inside of my left ear,
and you can see that that's a pretty clear ear canal.
I probably have some wax in there somewhere,
just a very little bit, but you know,
we can take a photo of the ear canal.
So they take three photos of the ear canal,
basically ensuring that you get a good visualization of it.
Now it wants me to take images of my right ear,
so a little more ear wax,
and so this is really the point right now
that we can do visual otoscopy remotely.
You can actually see if it's ear wax causing the problem,
or if ear wax would eventually lead to a problem,
which is maybe the single biggest hangup
of purchasing hearing devices online.
When they have no clue
if you an obstruction inside of your ear canal,
that's causing the issues or,
or anything else for that matter, you know,
visualization of a cholesteotoma or exostosis,
whatever the case may be.
There's a lot of different ear conditions
that you need to be able to see in order to diagnose.
So let's take a few images.
I'm going to make sure to get my ear wax in there.
So if I were sending this to an audiologist,
they would be able to identify that,
and other than that, my ear looks good.
So we're going to continue onto the assessment.
And so the thing is, is that this really gives you
this step by step instruction
on how to actually self administer a hearing test at home,
and it's fully calibrated.
The biggest issue with online hearing tests
is that there's no calibration for the headphones
that you're using, or the earbuds that you're using
with an at-home hearing test.
Because when you're testing,
let's say a 500 Hertz tone and your headphones
don't actually play that tone at 500 Hertz
because of the way that those headphones are set up.
You're not going to be getting accurate test results,
not to mention, you know,
the intensity level as well.
So if you're going to be testing,
let's say 50 decibels at 500 Hertz,
you need to make sure that that 50 decibel tone
is actually presented at 50 decibels
inside of your ear canal.
Unless you have a calibrated headset,
it's impossible to identify that.
So all of these, you know,
hearing tests that you do online are basically not good
enough to accurately fit hearing aids.
So keep that in mind,
and that's what this is supposed to overcome.
When you get a set of calibrated headphones
inside of this kit,
you can ensure that when you're taking this test
that a 50 decibel signal at a certain frequency
will actually be 50 decibels
when it's being presented to you,
and then that goes for any other
decibel level of presentation,
and, you know, I think that there's still a ways to go
with this, but it's nice to see that companies
are starting to create possible solutions for this.
This is how technology works.
You have a need, and then you have a certain company
that goes out and starts to try to figure out that need,
and then they implement, they test, they adjust,
they pivot, they see what else they need to do,
and eventually at the end of the day,
you are left with a fully functional testing kit
that you can send to someone's home
and get an accurate assessment of their hearing,
even though you don't have an audiologist present.
So this is pretty cool.
And I think that, you know,
given the nature of what we've learned
from the coronavirus pandemic,
I think that things like this
are really going to start popping up,
and I think that certain companies
are going to figure it out,
and I tend to be on the frontline of that
as with everything that I do.
I really, I love innovation, I think it's terrific.
Anything that can provide a better experience or better care
to someone with hearing loss or better accessibility
to someone with hearing loss I am all about,
and then we just need to get the state laws in line
with that because state laws are really,
I think, archaic in a lot of ways in some states
more than others, but, you know,
even if this was a fully functioning kit
that you could get every last detail of,
you know, audiometric data,
there would still be some states that are like,
nope, can't do that.
But then these same states allow for,
you know, hearing aids to be sold online
and fit remotely even without accurate audiometric data,
which is, it blows my mind,
but that's just how messed up our laws are
in these different states and in general,
when it comes to hearing care, but you know,
and who knows, maybe I need to start getting involved
in that side of it as well,
but I am not much of a political person.
I tend not to focus on politics a whole lot.
I understand that they're important to a degree,
I just don't feel like for the most part,
they have a huge impact on my life,
but I don't want to get too political in this.
But I do understand that from the political,
from a law perspective, I tend to be someone who functions
inside of the scope of laws,
and I don't really want to kind of be a person
who starts breaking the law in order to provide
better care for my patients, if that makes sense.
So I might have to start getting involved
in that side of things as well on the state level.
But with all that said,
I think this is a good place to kind of end the vlog.
I mean, I think that the point
that I just wanted to get across here today is that,
you know, we're having to change the way that we do things,
we're having to change the way that we think about things
from a hearing care delivery perspective,
and this is something that I think that we need to be having
more talks about because I don't want to get stuck
in this mindset of just doing things
the way that we've always done it,
just because that is the thing that I try to avoid the most.
So having more and more discussions about this,
getting a little bit more movement behind this type
of a new technology is something
that I'm really interested in doing,
but that is it for this week's vlog.
I've talked enough for you guys.
Of course, make sure that you check out my other vlogs.
Ashley wanted me to tell you
that while she wasn't here today, she will be back.
So leave any questions that you have for Ashley.
If you miss that vlog, check out blog number 24
'cause I have Ashley on that vlog with me.
Other than that though,
I'll see you guys next week.
(upbeat music)