Powerful combination of objective evidence and patient insights to elevate level of care.
April 5, 2016 – Kitchener, Canada – The growing availability of data analytics and a move to evidence-based medicine is creating an opportunity for change across all realms of healthcare. Unitron now brings these advances to hearing health with the release of patient insights, a new industry-first solution giving hearing healthcare professionals (HHCPs) a direct window into how patients are feeling about their hearing instrument performance.
A complete picture of the patient experience
Comprised of two industry-first features, Log It All and Patient Ratings, patient insights provides HHCPs with a more complete picture of the patient experience with their hearing instruments. Log It All captures objective data from the hearing instrument on the patient’s real-life hearing experiences across seven unique sound environments, while Patient Ratings provides the practitioner with subjective in-the-moment insights into a patient’s perception of their hearing experience. This powerful combination of evidence and insights gives the HHCP the whole picture to support their recommendations and elevate their level of care.
At the intersection of big data and patient demand
Unitron’s new patient insights sits at the intersection point of two mega trends impacting the healthcare market. First, rapid advancements in technology, such as mobile devices, sensors and wearables, now allow for low cost collection of patient data. Second, patients are demanding to be more engaged in their healthcare and want personalized solutions that fit their lifestyle. And, the explosion of smartphone use among healthy agers – 54% of individuals aged 50-64 and 27% of individuals 65+ own a mobile phone – makes patient monitoring and data collection easier than ever to achieve.1
“Hearing healthcare providers are starting to see the possibility and value of data collected on patient mobile devices and are realizing what a positive impact this information can have on their practice and the patient experience,” says Chris McIntyre, Senior Product Manager, Fitting Software and Mobile Apps at Unitron.
Better patient outcomes
The impact of patient insights on the patient experience and its ability to pave the way to better patient outcomes cannot be underestimated, says Dr. Don Hayes, Director of Clinical Research for Unitron. “The whole point of giving people a pair of hearing aids to try out in the field is to get back information about what works and doesn’t work for a patient,” says Hayes. “Until now, there’s been a disconnect between what the person says, and the ability to know what the hearing aid is doing. The combination of the objective data from Log It All with the subjective patient experience data gathered in-the-moment through Patient Ratings solves that problem. Patient insights provides HHCPs with the information they need to make changes to the hearing instruments so patients go out the door with a better fitting.”
1 Pew Research Center, 2016
About Unitron
Unitron is a global company that understands the hearing healthcare business is built on strong, personal relationships. We work closely with hearing healthcare professionals to improve the lives of people with hearing loss. A member of the Sonova Group, Unitron has a proven track record of developing hearing innovations that provide natural sound with exceptional speech understanding. Headquartered in Canada, Unitron distributes its full line of hearing instruments to customers in over 60 countries. For more information, please visit us on the web at unitron.com or the Unitron Expo Page on AudiologyOnline.
