Question
What is AudiogramDirect and when would a hearing care provider use it?
Answer
AudiogramDirect is a form of in-situ hearing assessment using Phonak hearing aids. It has been available in Phonak products since 2011, and AudiogramDirect is a reliable way to verify and refine audiometric results. With the latest release of Phonak Target 6.2.8, AudiogramDirect is now available via Remote Support.
Phonak Field Study News has a new addition with “Audiogram and AudiogramDirect: comparison of in-clinic assessments.” This important validation of AudiogramDirect instills confidence in the results you obtain to verify your patient’s hearing thresholds, which includes:
- Retrospective analyses of 167,772 in-clinic assessments compared to AudiogramDirect measurements.
- High level of correlation between standard audiometry and in-situ audiometry (AudiogramDirect), suggesting a high level of agreement between the methods.
- 95% of examined thresholds fell within a range ± 15 dB HL with the average difference between AudiogramDirect and standard audiometry less than 1 dB HL.
When a patient or the audiologist is concerned hearing may have changed, AudiogramDirect allows the provider to do a fast and accurate check of pure-tone audiometry thresholds. This can be useful to determine if there may be a change in hearing requiring further evaluation. In the meantime, the provider can use this new data to configure the hearing aid gain settings to the patient’s current hearing status.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, providers have been able to utilize AudiogramDirect as a safe alternative to an in-person hearing test. It should be noted that AudiogramDirect does not replace an in-person test, and it is expected that a full audiologic evaluation be conducted as soon as possible.
