Remote healthcare for your ears
Seem far fetched? Nope! In fact, right now it’s almost a necessity.
Unfortunately, the world has changed and healthcare has been forced to change. Telehealth has become a very real thing. Although remote healthcare has been around for some time it has never really been widely used until now and the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic.
It’s largely a product of the need to employ social distancing to reduce the spread of the virus, but it brings with it many benefits that we would not have seen otherwise. If embraced by healthcare professionals and the public, remote healthcare is a real game-changer.
Think about all the things that are difficult about attending appointments. I would bet that your list includes being put on hold, standing in queues, appointments running late or being cancelled last minute and having to take time off work to attend. With remote healthcare, these problems simply don’t exist. It’s as convenient as it gets.
All of that being said it’s not easy to set up a practice to be able to facilitate remote healthcare, but audiology always has been and always will be technology-driven, so out of all healthcare professionals, us ear nerds are right at the forefront of remote healthcare.
For years we have been boasting about hearing aids with wireless connectivity with features such as Bluetooth and 5GHz WIFI. Over short distances, we have been using this tech to better people’s hearing experience by connecting to mobile phones and remote microphones wirelessly. Now, this technology coupled with the wonders of the web is enabling us to provide high-quality hearing care wherever you are and not just in our clinics.
A great example of this technology is GN Resound’s remote assist feature. Once your hearing aids have been fitted and paired with the accompanying app, you can request remote assistance from your audiologist at any time. They will then assess the problem and send out the appropriate updates to your devices without you ever having to even leave your home.
We can even arrange a live video chat and adjust the settings of your hearing aids anywhere in the world(with a working internet connection).
This really is amazing technology and has enabled us to deliver great quality healthcare during some of the toughest times in our history and I’m proud to see our profession leading the way.