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- [Interviewer] Alright, so, if a patient comes in
and says, "Dr. Olson, I want the best hearing aid.
"What is the best hearing aid?"
How do you determine what a best hearing aid is?
- There's so many things that go into consideration
when prescribing a hearing aid.
I need to know the level of hearing loss that someone has.
Is it a high-frequency, low-frequency?
What is the shape of their ear?
Can they have a device that goes behind their ear
or does it all have to go inside the ear?
So, I mean, there's so many different factors
that come into play.
What I really think that they're getting to
is that they wanna know the best brand,
the best manufacturer.
They want to know which one of them has the best technology.
For the most part, all of them are on the same
level playing field.
Now, that being said, there's little individual factors
or features with each different brand of hearing aids
that might suit that person better.
So, a lot of time is spent to identify
what are the most important things for you as a patient.
And then taking those most important things
and figuring out which one of those devices
will accomplish that goal.
That being said, you could probably,
and I'm not even gonna say probably,
you can get a better response from a hearing aid,
you can go with a really, really cheap hearing aid.
If that cheap hearing aid is fit really well,
you will do better
than a really expensive hearing aid fit poorly.
So, we have to kind of quantify
what's good and what's poorly.
What determines a good fit or a poor fit is best practices.
So these fundamental, core things that need to be done
from a physical fit standpoint and a programming standpoint
that will determine if you have success
with that particular hearing aid.
Because so many people think,
"Well, I have a really good hearing aid,
"so that will provide me
"with the absolute best level of hearing."
And it will.
So, the best hearing aid will provide you
with better hearing if it's been fit appropriately.
If it's been programmed appropriately.
- [Interviewer] So, hearing devices are not just chosen
based off of
the results from an audiometry hearing test.
- Right.
- [Interviewer] It's also based off of
the verbal concerns the patient gives you.
They say, "Oh, well when I go to church
"and I'm trying to sing, I can't hear myself sing.
"Therefore, I don't sing.
"I wanna be able to sing in church.
"I wanna be able to hear myself sing."
So, based off of different situations,
in your mind you're thinking
there are different levels of technology,
best suitable based off what the patient
tells you their goals are.
- Right.
So, I think people have a good understanding of percentages.
So, I would say that 20% of deciding
which treatment, technology, whatever to go with
is based on the hearing test.
The actual hearing test that you have done.
Critical component, have to have it.
But 80% of deciding which treatment is right for you
is based on the specific interactions, these questions,
these things that you wanna hear that you're not hearing.
These certain situations you find yourself in.
Without that information, so if we just did a hearing test
and said you need a hearing aid and you need this one
based off of just the hearing test alone,
without getting all of this understanding
from what situations you find yourself in,
what you really wanna hear,
then I would question that recommendation.
- [Interviewer] So, I just had this thought.
Sometimes people really aren't aware of
themselves in everyday life situations and they think,
"Oh, I'm most bothered
"because I can't sit down and watch CNN."
So, we come in and we get this test and then based off
what I'm telling you my concerns are, we choose a device.
And then I get this device and I'm wearing it
and I'm realizing that what really bothers me
is that when I go watch my grandson play soccer,
I can't really hear and it's hard for me to cheer
and that means more to me than watching CNN.
- Right.
- [Interviewer] But the device I'm having
really isn't going to optimize that experience
at the soccer game as it does with CNN.
So what do we do?
- Yeah.
I mean, that is why at the onset,
even before you have the hearing test,
that specific circumstance
of what the most important thing is to you
should be uncovered.
You should not be into your treatment
or starting your treatment and then realizing,
"Oh, I actually really wanted to hear this thing,
"but my hearing care professional
"never asked me about these specific situations."
Those things need to be identified up front
because to be honest,
if you came in and saying the most important thing to me
was watching CNN, Fox News,
whatever TV show that you wanna hear,
I wouldn't recommend the same level of technology to you
as someone who's like,
"I have a grandchild who plays soccer
"and I can't hear
"the people sitting around me
"asking me questions about my grandson."
If I knew that at the beginning,
I would be able to advise and prescribe
the correct level of technology for that individual.
So, it's immensely important.
- [Interviewer] So, there is a huge value
into the audiologist taking the appropriate amount of time,
not rushing through this appointment,
so they can properly counsel and investigate their patients
to get the information they need to make the proper
recommendation for me as a patient.
- Perfectly said.
Absolutely.
I mean, the very first time--
- [Interviewer] Oh, so then that's why you're better
than the audiologist down the street.
- Okay, I've stumbled into the trap.
So, I believe that everyone has the capability of being
a terrific hearing care professional.
Having a big knowledge base does not necessarily mean
that you'll be good at what you do.
If you don't employ that knowledge into practice,
then you won't do your job very well.
This is the way that I'll phrase it,
I pride myself on having a really good knowledge base
and knowing what I'm doing,
but employing that knowledge base to maximize benefit.
And the way that I do that is I follow best practices,
which are these fundamentals, these core fundamentals
that you have to follow in order to have success
and I do it with extreme amounts of precision.
And when I say precision, I'm talking attention to detail.
If you mess one of those fundamentals up,
your performance will suffer.
That's what I pride myself on,
is doing these things and doing them to the utmost
of my ability and the knowledge
that I've gained over the years.
- [Interviewer] I think that's fantastic.
And the audiology community should be
fortunate that they have you.
- Oh, thank you.
- [Interviewer] I mean that.
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