Veterans to receive remote audiological care, including real-time hearing aid adjustments and live video counseling
Warrenville, IL, May 05, 2020 - Leading hearing health care company Phonak has partnered with the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to make remote hearing care, including hearing aid fine-tuning and adjustments, a reality for Veterans amid the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. With Phonak Remote Support, VA audiologists can now extend care beyond the walls of their clinics to patients who are social distancing, have mobility challenges, or to those who prefer virtual follow-up sessions. The technology comes only five weeks after the VA released its COVID-19 Response Plan, which highlighted telehealth services as a preferred health care delivery system for Veterans without COVID-19.
How Phonak Remote Support works
VA audiologists can initiate a Remote Support session through a tab in Phonak’s professional fitting software. At appointment time, patients use the free myPhonak app on their smartphone to virtually connect with their audiologist via secure voice, text or video chat. Because the patient’s phone is linked to his/her hearing aids via Bluetooth® technology, the audiologist gains direct access to all hearing aid settings via the smartphone. This allows Veterans to receive on-the-spot tuning, program changes, counseling, and more in real-time while remaining safely at home.
“Phonak is proud to partner with the Department of Veterans Affairs to make remote hearing aid adjustments and live patient counseling possible for our nation’s heroes,” said Johanna Bailey-Stark, Au.D., Sr. Director of Government Services for Phonak. “This is important because success with hearing aids has been linked to emotional, cognitive and even physical well-being. While telehealth services like Remote Support are critical during the coronavirus pandemic, they also support several ongoing VA Strategic Goals & Objectives, including the delivery of health care that enhances Veteran well-being and independence.”
Click here to learn more about how Phonak supports U.S. Veterans, including Phonak Remote Support technology, hearing aids on VA contract, or other government services.
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