Fifty audiologists from around Australia and New Zealand attended Independent Audiologist Australia’s first in-person event post-COVID in Melbourne.
The Audiology for Life! seminar at Melbourne Business School on 11 October 2024 featured eight speakers, a trade expo and IAA’s annual general meeting followed by networking drinks and canapes.
IAA president Dr Tegan Keogh and vice-president Dr Greg Butcher welcomed delegates and Dr Keogh performed an Acknowledgement of Country. Executive officer Ms Julie Watts said the theme was connection with patients, members and community along with problem solving.
Delegates heard thought-provoking and practical presentations ranging from ethics to AI scribes, maximising clinic success, Hearing Services Program reviews and supervisory practice to improve staff wellbeing.
Person-centred care was a recurring theme but attendees also heard about community-centred care and an upcoming web app to support psychosocial impacts of hearing loss for patients.
Dr Emma Laird, project lead at Soundfair Hearing Centre, detailed development of the digital hearing wellbeing tool, Luminear, to support the wellbeing of people with hearing loss. The University of Melbourne project led by Soundfair has included human-centred design with patients.
Preliminary data suggested it significantly reduced anxiety, depression and stress in patients, Dr Laird said.
Ethics Advisory Services managing director, lawyer and ethicist, Professor Melinda Edwards, also MC of the event, said businesses were previously dominated by and concerned with just making money.
“The whole mood has changed, and businesses need to step up and do more than make money but contribute to a world we want,” she said. “Engaging intentionally is the key to ethical business operations, rather than just being reactive and putting out fires.”
She advised steering culture to an environment of safety where everyone can contribute and people feel safe to speak up if they see something that’s not right.
Mr Damian Attia, business development manager from Heidi Health free AI medical scribe, explained the business was built by a former surgeon and all executives had clinical backgrounds. “This is what differentiates Heidi,” he said. “It is also compliant with Australian health and privacy laws.”
Attia said Heidi Health could save practitioners one to two hours a day in note-taking by capturing the consultation, and reduce writing of referral letters from 20 minutes to 30 seconds.
Independent audiologists were getting more complex cases, explained Dr Dunay Schmulian, University of Queensland lecturer and director at Cotton Tree Audiology. Other allied health professionals such as psychologists de-briefed through professional supervision and she suggested this would be valuable for audiologists.
“Well-being is what has been missing from professional and supervisory practices,” she said. “Practitioners need psychological safety to share concerns and prevent burnout and compassion fatigue.”
Audiologist Ms Geraldine Todd, sales director from Widex Australia and New Zealand said the audiology retail landscape was highly competitive and consumers were evolving, shopping around and becoming more tech savvy.
Its 2023 consumer survey found that awareness of independent clinics was increasing significantly as consumers realised the clinics offered more than just appointments. “You need to be proud of that,” she added.
Keynote speaker, ABC medical journalist, broadcaster and author Dr Norman Swan, said community-centred care was as important as patient-centred care.
He also urged value-based care. “Are you providing value to your patient for the money, time and effort involved?” he asked. “Thirty to 40 per cent of what we do in medicine is waste (X-rays, tests, operations.) There will be waste in audiology practice too, where is it?”
“Do you have evidence behind your practice which supports value-based care?”
Ms Jane Lee, Deafness Forum Australia’s national manager of health programs, spoke about her recently launched discussion paper on previous Hearing Services Program reviews.
“Over three decades there have been many HSP reviews, a lot focusing on administrative and operative functions, but what about the patient and enhancing patient outcomes?” she asked.
She suggested clearer information and objectives, and a better website would improve access for more vulnerable people.
Dr Gerard William from the University of Melbourne and director of Hear with Me Audiology Care, discussed his personal experience with hearing loss from a young age and how it led to his career in audiology.
He said person-centred care included empowering patients to choose after a discussion and explanation, family involvement and a therapeutic relationship involving compassion. “If the system is set up to be patient-centred from the first website search to the last interaction you finish on a high and they will remember the last feeling,” he said.
Note: Hearing Practitioner Australia will provide more coverage in the December-January edition.
