The Reality of Real Ear

[cmc271]

New article on Hearing Health Matters re: prevalence of real ear measures.

http://hearinghealthmatters.org/hearinprivatepractice/2011/the-reality-of-real-ear/

It states that only about 40% of audiologists within the US are using it! I know that in my program we use it with our patients at the on campus clinic, off site usage varies quite a bit. How often are you guys using it? Is it being taught as best practice for HA fittings? I know time is often argued but I have not found that it takes that much time and use of NAL/DSL prescriptions makes it relatively simple to at least get a solid starting point, then fine tuning based on both the patient input and real ear measures.

I'd also suggest reading Kochkin's piece on reducing number of patient visits through use of verification and validation measures.

http://www.betterhearing.org/pdfs/M8_Verification_Validation_Study.pdf

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[Kitska]

Our program sounds very similar -- definitely being taught as best practice. Off-site, I see it used always at hospital clinics, but not as much in private practice. For pediatrics especially, I feel that some kind of verification (RECD plus test box measure) is mandatory because either under- or over-fitting would be bad.

 

[quiteaud]

We do them at every single fitting, unless the person absolutely cannot tolerate the probe tip, which happens every once in a blue moon. We also do them at many follow-up visits, but not all.

I've actually seen numbers lower than 40% on how many audiologists are doing real ear. Hearing aid dispensers even do them more often than audiologists do, making me feel once again that audiology is a joke. It is so inappropriate to not do real ear measurements. In fact, it's straight-up unethical. Furthermore, it can get you into legal trouble if anyone were to file a class-action lawsuit against you and you couldn't prove you had actually fit anyone properly.

 

[cidanu]

i've seen a variety of approaches. i know of a site that couldn't get the hospital funding for the equipment so wasn't doing it at all. other places it's the protocol to do it first thing in every fitting. other places it's routine with peds and on an "as-needed" basis with adults.

 

[rEliseMe]

We do them in the clinic and our outplacement coordinator won't send us to a placement that doesn't.