Amplification and Assistive Devices (AAD)
Patricia A. Gaffney, AuD (she/her/hers)
Professor
Nova Southeastern University
Nova Southeastern University
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Financial Disclosures: I do not have any relevant financial relationships with anything to disclose.
Non-Financial Disclosures: I do not have any relevant non-financial relationships with anything to disclose.
Alyssa R. Needleman, PhD (she/her/hers)
Clinical Director and Professor
Nova Southeastern University
Nova Southeastern University
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Financial Disclosures: I do not have any relevant financial relationships with anything to disclose.
Non-Financial Disclosures: Nova Southeastern University, Clinical Director & Professor
Academic Faculty, Audiology, Council on Academic Accreditation SLP/AUD
AAA 2023 Learning Module Subcommittee
AAA 2023 Research, Clinical, and Teaching Posters Subcommittee
Ryan McCreery, PhD (he/him/his)
Vice President of Research
Boys Town National Research Hospital
Omaha, Nebraska
Disclosure(s): Boys Town National Research Hospital: Employment (Ongoing)
As of October 17, 2022 over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids are available for purchase. This is a significant change from the hearing aid service delivery model that has been in place for the past forty plus years. Hearing healthcare providers have been concerned about the impact of this new OTC category on patient care, business, and income. Now that OTC hearing aids are here do audiology students, audiologists, and hearing instrument specialists feel that OTCs are bops or flops. The survey assesses opinions about how OTC hearing aids may impact current clinical practice.
Summary:
For the past 40+ years, the process of purchasing a hearing aid required an appointment with a licensed audiologist or hearing instrument dispenser. Over the years there has been significant criticism of hearing aids related to the cost, barriers to care, lack of insurance coverage, predatory hearing aid sales, and technology lag. The FDA released its final guidelines and opened OTC products for sale on October 17, 2022.
This change has caused some angst in the audiology/hearing instrument specialist (HIS) communities. There is a large question mark on how this will affect our professions with feelings from the future demise of businesses to that OTC devices may have no impact. Some audiologists are grateful for the fact that those with limited funds may be able to access improved hearing via OTC hearing aids reducing a barrier to care. Publicly the discourse focuses on the positive effects for OTC on public health. However, in closed social media groups of audiologists the concern is much greater because of the unknown effect. Additionally, since it is social media the investigators are unsure if this fear is widespread or if only the loud few dominate the discussion. The purpose of this study is to get a more accurate representative of opinions regarding how OTC hearing aids may impact current clinical practice. The survey will assess the opinions of practicing audiologists and HIS s as well as audiology doctoral students.
The anonymous survey was designed through SurveyMonkey with a total of 38 questions total with approximately 10 minutes to complete. Preliminary data reveals over 250 people participated in the survey. Approximately 20% of respondents are students and the other 80% are audiologists or HIS.
The mean age group of respondents was 25-34 years of age.
The biggest question is – will OTC devices have a negative impact on careers and jobs in audiology.
Half of the students reported they are mildly concerned that OTC devices will have a negative impact on their career. Whereas with practicing audiologists and HIS the responses were more spread evenly across mildly concerned, not at all concerned, and neutral feelings. Ninety percent of students and 79% of audiologists and HIS believe that patients using the devices inappropriately will have the biggest negative impact. Sixty-eight percent of students and 46% of audiologists and HIS report that OTCs will negatively impact the image/perception of audiologists and HIS. For 51% of audiologists and HIS and 59% of students are concerned that children will be given OTC hearing aids instead of standard hearing aids. The poster will also discuss business practices among audiologists and HIS related to standard hearing aids vs OTC devices.
The importance and innovation of this work is that this data was collected immediately before and after OTCs were officially in the marketplace. There is such significant hype about the impact about OTC on audiology and hearing care. As a profession there was a narrative of how this would impact audiology, but there was not the understanding from a cross section of people about how they feel OTC will impact them.