Interview with Scott Peterson, Vice President of New Product Development and Technical Support, HIMSA
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Topic: Noah 4 - What's New, and Why You Should Upgrade
CAROLYN SMAKA: Scott, thanks for coming on today. What do you do for HIMSA?
SCOTT PETERSON: I've been with HIMSA for almost 15 years and I've held various roles. Currently, I'm in charge of U.S. operations, as well as very involved with new product design and development. Part of my responsibility is ensuring that we have the right input in terms of requirements for new products, as well as making sure that our solutions are easy to use.
SMAKA: Noah 4 is the newest product, released in April 2011. What was the primary reason for this new version?
PETERSON: As you know, Noah 3 has been out for about ten years now. About 90% of professionals in our industry use Noah and it was time for an update. There have been a lot of advances in software over the years, and at HIMSA we're committed to keeping up to date with changes in technology.
The primary reason for Noah 4 was to make it an easier to use product.
SMAKA: How so?
PETERSON: Well, even though you may think Noah 3 is easy to use, certain daily functions, such as looking up information or performing a fine-tuning session, may take 13 clicks to get you where you want to go, so we knew there was room for improvement.
We made a concerted effort to simplify the user interface. Now, when people see Noah 4 for the first time, their eyes light up. They say it looks better, is very intuitive and extremely easy to navigate. Every activity is based off of one screen. So instead of 13 clicks, we have one screen.
SMAKA: How did you achieve this simplicity?
PETERSON: From the initial phase of development, we were very focused on simplicity. We collected a lot of feedback from users. We also hired a professional design consultant to help us gather and understand the desired outcomes that people who use our product were seeking, in order to help us design a very easy to use product.
SMAKA: If I have a patient and I first open Noah 4, what do I see?
PETERSON: The first thing you'll see is a good preview of the patient that you're looking at: the latest audiogram and the latest session history. You'll also be able to see other data that you've collected at a glance, such as how many audiograms there are, the dates, and how many fine-tuning sessions there are, all in a consolidated and easy-to-read format.
Noah has always had a session history, of course, but now we've consolidated it and made it easier to look at. We've also added a quick view of the latest make, model and serial number for the current devices for that patient, with room to enter comments.
Another goal in the development of Noah 4 was to help people become paperless, so we added some new tools. Now there is a free journal module that comes with Noah 4 as a free add-on.
Click here to view a larger version of the journal screenshot (PDF).
SMAKA: How does the journal tool work?
PETERSON: It is a pretty useful basic word processor that lets users take different kinds of session notes. For example, you can record the repair history, or take notes for a patient who has had to come in several times for fine-tuning.
You also have the ability to attach any kind of a file to the journal module. You can attach otoscopy pictures, or a pdf file, for example.
Click here to view a larger version of the journal screenshot (PDF).
SMAKA: I could see many uses for that - reports from other facilities, photos pre/post remake, etc. Love it.
PETERSON: Yes, we've had a great response about that feature.
Another popular enhancement is a better search utility. Searching for patients has always been quite easy - just type in a first name or a last name and the software filters the database as the search results come up. But now you can do more fine-tuned searches, for example on patient activity.
SMAKA: How does that work?
PETERSON: It's interesting. The concept came from requests that we received. So, one search might be, "Show me a list of patients that I have not seen in two years or more." Maybe you've lost contact with some of them, or maybe you want to find candidates for a new hearing instrument on the market.
I've also had professionals tell me they'll do a search such as "Show me a list of patients I saw this past week." Maybe it's Friday and they want to review the patients that they had seen during the week for reporting purposes, or to finish entering journal notes, etc.
We have a great new search ability for serial numbers for hearing instruments. It's pretty common in hearing care practices that an instrument is found sitting on a desk and we're not sure who it belongs to. Now, you can just type the serial number in to Noah 4 and whichever patient that hearing aid belongs to will pop up.
You can also search by hearing loss. You can define your own profile with a minimum and maximum range for air conduction and/or bone conduction, and then Noah 4 will search the latest audiogram from each patient record to find out which patients meet that profile. From there you can export the search results in a CSV file format and open it in Excel.
SMAKA: Great for marketing!
PETERSON: Yes, so when a manufacturer comes out with an instrument that is geared for a certain profile loss, you can run through your patient database and see who meets the criteria.
SMAKA: Right, and send marketing information about a new open fit instrument for high frequency hearing losses, or a new super power instrument for severe-profound hearing losses.
PETERSON: Exactly.
SMAKA: Is there any reason to stick with Noah 3? What would be holding someone back from upgrading to Noah 4?
PETERSON: Years ago when we upgraded from Noah 2 to Noah 3, it was challenging for some people. For example, in those days you may have had to reinstall your fitting and measurement modules. That's not the case with Noah 4.
The upgrade process is seamless and very automatic. You run the installation and it will move the patient data very safely and securely to a new database that we use with Noah 4. It will also migrate all the modules over to Noah 4.
We conduct follow-up surveys roughly two weeks after people have upgraded, and overall they are very satisfied and have no problems.
SMAKA: What about people with old computers or old measuring equipment software? Any advice?
PETERSON: Noah 4 is very safe and everything runs very well, but we do provide information on our website with a list of modules and equipment that have been certified for Noah 4. Certification for Noah 4 involves a very extensive testing process. If you want to be extra cautious, particularly if you have older software that may have been made for Noah 2, or for a 16-bit operating system, take a look at the list.
To access the lists, from our homepage click All you need to know about Noah 4, and then click Noah 4 certified modules.
Some of the best advocates of Noah 4 are the technical support representatives at the different hearing instrument manufacturers. They are our primary line of support.
They're the ones that typically work directly with hearing professionals. In many cases if they have a problem with Noah 3 that they haven't been able to solve, they move to Noah 4 and it takes care of it. They can also see that the new features are useful and easy to use, and are very enthusiastic about it, and I think their enthusiasm motivates professionals to go ahead and upgrade.
SMAKA: How does someone go about getting Noah 4?
PETERSON: There's a few different ways to obtain it. It is available on our website, himsa.com, for download. If you're an owner of Noah 3 the software itself is a free upgrade. If you're a do-it-yourself type of person, it is very easy to upgrade and you can certainly go ahead and download it from our website. Read through "All you need to know about Noah 4" if you have questions before you start.
Typically, you receive support from whichever company you initially received your Noah from, and you can also obtain the upgrade from them. It's up to that company if they have some sort of distribution fee or a fee for upgrade and support.
SMAKA: What's next for Noah 4?
PETERSON: As I mentioned, many professionals have a need to go paperless, and there is also a need for integration with other systems. Noah is collecting a lot of medical data that needs to be incorporated in other systems, and very soon we will offer an additional method to integrate with other systems.
SMAKA: For EMR purposes?
PETERSON: EMR is definitely important.
In a hospital or an ENT clinic you might be using their EMR system, or in other settings you may be using a patient management system designed for an audiology practice. For many years we've had Noah compatible office systems and there is a complete listing of those on our website. These systems are already integrating data from Noah - audiograms, fittings, etc.
Now, we're making an additional method for other systems to essentially receive data from Noah. If someone is using Noah-compatible audiometer equipment or software programs, as data is entered into Noah, such as an audiogram, then Noah will push that data out to the other systems so that it can become part of the official patient medical record within the EMR system.
One reason you may want to do this is so that others in the network, such as physicians, can have easy access to the data.
SMAKA: This would be an upgrade?
PETERSON: Yes, it will be available very soon.
SMAKA: Scott, are people still using NOAHLink?
PETERSON: Definitely. Even though there are several proprietary wireless programming interfaces available from various hearing instrument manufacturers, we still find that end users are very interested in a common solution.
We continue to make incremental improvements within the software that runs NOAHlink since it's widely used. We're committed to supporting it for many years to come.
SMAKA: Right, because even if each manufacturer has a solution, there are still many, many users out there with hearing aids that are not wireless, and they will be using those for years to come.
PETERSON: Exactly.
SMAKA: Thanks, Scott. It's been great for me to get up to speed on Noah 4. Appreciate the info.
PETERSON: My pleasure. For further information, check out our website, www.himsa.com/ We keep it updated with all the latest information on Noah 4, Noahlink, as well as other product and support information.
You may also learn more about HIMSA by visiting the HIMSA web channel on AudiologyOnline.
SCOTT PETERSON: I've been with HIMSA for almost 15 years and I've held various roles. Currently, I'm in charge of U.S. operations, as well as very involved with new product design and development. Part of my responsibility is ensuring that we have the right input in terms of requirements for new products, as well as making sure that our solutions are easy to use.
SMAKA: Noah 4 is the newest product, released in April 2011. What was the primary reason for this new version?
PETERSON: As you know, Noah 3 has been out for about ten years now. About 90% of professionals in our industry use Noah and it was time for an update. There have been a lot of advances in software over the years, and at HIMSA we're committed to keeping up to date with changes in technology.
The primary reason for Noah 4 was to make it an easier to use product.
SMAKA: How so?
PETERSON: Well, even though you may think Noah 3 is easy to use, certain daily functions, such as looking up information or performing a fine-tuning session, may take 13 clicks to get you where you want to go, so we knew there was room for improvement.
We made a concerted effort to simplify the user interface. Now, when people see Noah 4 for the first time, their eyes light up. They say it looks better, is very intuitive and extremely easy to navigate. Every activity is based off of one screen. So instead of 13 clicks, we have one screen.
SMAKA: How did you achieve this simplicity?
PETERSON: From the initial phase of development, we were very focused on simplicity. We collected a lot of feedback from users. We also hired a professional design consultant to help us gather and understand the desired outcomes that people who use our product were seeking, in order to help us design a very easy to use product.
SMAKA: If I have a patient and I first open Noah 4, what do I see?
PETERSON: The first thing you'll see is a good preview of the patient that you're looking at: the latest audiogram and the latest session history. You'll also be able to see other data that you've collected at a glance, such as how many audiograms there are, the dates, and how many fine-tuning sessions there are, all in a consolidated and easy-to-read format.
Noah has always had a session history, of course, but now we've consolidated it and made it easier to look at. We've also added a quick view of the latest make, model and serial number for the current devices for that patient, with room to enter comments.
Another goal in the development of Noah 4 was to help people become paperless, so we added some new tools. Now there is a free journal module that comes with Noah 4 as a free add-on.
Click here to view a larger version of the journal screenshot (PDF).
SMAKA: How does the journal tool work?
PETERSON: It is a pretty useful basic word processor that lets users take different kinds of session notes. For example, you can record the repair history, or take notes for a patient who has had to come in several times for fine-tuning.
You also have the ability to attach any kind of a file to the journal module. You can attach otoscopy pictures, or a pdf file, for example.
Click here to view a larger version of the journal screenshot (PDF).
SMAKA: I could see many uses for that - reports from other facilities, photos pre/post remake, etc. Love it.
PETERSON: Yes, we've had a great response about that feature.
Another popular enhancement is a better search utility. Searching for patients has always been quite easy - just type in a first name or a last name and the software filters the database as the search results come up. But now you can do more fine-tuned searches, for example on patient activity.
SMAKA: How does that work?
PETERSON: It's interesting. The concept came from requests that we received. So, one search might be, "Show me a list of patients that I have not seen in two years or more." Maybe you've lost contact with some of them, or maybe you want to find candidates for a new hearing instrument on the market.
I've also had professionals tell me they'll do a search such as "Show me a list of patients I saw this past week." Maybe it's Friday and they want to review the patients that they had seen during the week for reporting purposes, or to finish entering journal notes, etc.
We have a great new search ability for serial numbers for hearing instruments. It's pretty common in hearing care practices that an instrument is found sitting on a desk and we're not sure who it belongs to. Now, you can just type the serial number in to Noah 4 and whichever patient that hearing aid belongs to will pop up.
You can also search by hearing loss. You can define your own profile with a minimum and maximum range for air conduction and/or bone conduction, and then Noah 4 will search the latest audiogram from each patient record to find out which patients meet that profile. From there you can export the search results in a CSV file format and open it in Excel.
SMAKA: Great for marketing!
PETERSON: Yes, so when a manufacturer comes out with an instrument that is geared for a certain profile loss, you can run through your patient database and see who meets the criteria.
SMAKA: Right, and send marketing information about a new open fit instrument for high frequency hearing losses, or a new super power instrument for severe-profound hearing losses.
PETERSON: Exactly.
SMAKA: Is there any reason to stick with Noah 3? What would be holding someone back from upgrading to Noah 4?
PETERSON: Years ago when we upgraded from Noah 2 to Noah 3, it was challenging for some people. For example, in those days you may have had to reinstall your fitting and measurement modules. That's not the case with Noah 4.
The upgrade process is seamless and very automatic. You run the installation and it will move the patient data very safely and securely to a new database that we use with Noah 4. It will also migrate all the modules over to Noah 4.
We conduct follow-up surveys roughly two weeks after people have upgraded, and overall they are very satisfied and have no problems.
SMAKA: What about people with old computers or old measuring equipment software? Any advice?
PETERSON: Noah 4 is very safe and everything runs very well, but we do provide information on our website with a list of modules and equipment that have been certified for Noah 4. Certification for Noah 4 involves a very extensive testing process. If you want to be extra cautious, particularly if you have older software that may have been made for Noah 2, or for a 16-bit operating system, take a look at the list.
To access the lists, from our homepage click All you need to know about Noah 4, and then click Noah 4 certified modules.
Some of the best advocates of Noah 4 are the technical support representatives at the different hearing instrument manufacturers. They are our primary line of support.
They're the ones that typically work directly with hearing professionals. In many cases if they have a problem with Noah 3 that they haven't been able to solve, they move to Noah 4 and it takes care of it. They can also see that the new features are useful and easy to use, and are very enthusiastic about it, and I think their enthusiasm motivates professionals to go ahead and upgrade.
SMAKA: How does someone go about getting Noah 4?
PETERSON: There's a few different ways to obtain it. It is available on our website, himsa.com, for download. If you're an owner of Noah 3 the software itself is a free upgrade. If you're a do-it-yourself type of person, it is very easy to upgrade and you can certainly go ahead and download it from our website. Read through "All you need to know about Noah 4" if you have questions before you start.
Typically, you receive support from whichever company you initially received your Noah from, and you can also obtain the upgrade from them. It's up to that company if they have some sort of distribution fee or a fee for upgrade and support.
SMAKA: What's next for Noah 4?
PETERSON: As I mentioned, many professionals have a need to go paperless, and there is also a need for integration with other systems. Noah is collecting a lot of medical data that needs to be incorporated in other systems, and very soon we will offer an additional method to integrate with other systems.
SMAKA: For EMR purposes?
PETERSON: EMR is definitely important.
In a hospital or an ENT clinic you might be using their EMR system, or in other settings you may be using a patient management system designed for an audiology practice. For many years we've had Noah compatible office systems and there is a complete listing of those on our website. These systems are already integrating data from Noah - audiograms, fittings, etc.
Now, we're making an additional method for other systems to essentially receive data from Noah. If someone is using Noah-compatible audiometer equipment or software programs, as data is entered into Noah, such as an audiogram, then Noah will push that data out to the other systems so that it can become part of the official patient medical record within the EMR system.
One reason you may want to do this is so that others in the network, such as physicians, can have easy access to the data.
SMAKA: This would be an upgrade?
PETERSON: Yes, it will be available very soon.
SMAKA: Scott, are people still using NOAHLink?
PETERSON: Definitely. Even though there are several proprietary wireless programming interfaces available from various hearing instrument manufacturers, we still find that end users are very interested in a common solution.
We continue to make incremental improvements within the software that runs NOAHlink since it's widely used. We're committed to supporting it for many years to come.
SMAKA: Right, because even if each manufacturer has a solution, there are still many, many users out there with hearing aids that are not wireless, and they will be using those for years to come.
PETERSON: Exactly.
SMAKA: Thanks, Scott. It's been great for me to get up to speed on Noah 4. Appreciate the info.
PETERSON: My pleasure. For further information, check out our website, www.himsa.com/ We keep it updated with all the latest information on Noah 4, Noahlink, as well as other product and support information.
You may also learn more about HIMSA by visiting the HIMSA web channel on AudiologyOnline.
