NSW audiometrist MATTHEW O’NEILL details his experience with AudZone – the first AI scribe and operating system purpose built for Australian audiology.
As the owner of six hearing care clinics, and a practising clinician of nearly 30 years, audiometrist Matthew O’Neill could not wait to get his hands on AudZone, an audiology scribe and operating system powered by artificial intelligence.
He was one of the nation’s first adopters when it came to market in 2025 and was immediately impressed.
He says it’s made a huge difference to his clinics and staff, including improved work-life balance and Hearing Services Program (HSP) compliance.
O’Neill began his career as a trainee audiometrist in Cronulla working for his uncle who specialised in industrial hearing loss.
He later worked at five other hearing clinics and has worked in private practice since 2009 before opening his own business, Advanced Hearing Solutions 13 years ago.
The business now owns five clinics in NSW’s central west, south coast, central coast, Sydney, and one in Victoria.
“It’s grown fast in the past five years,” O’Neill says.
“When people with independent audiology clinics retire and are looking for options, I’ve bought their clinic, keeping them independent. People know me in the industry and send them my way.”
He says independent clinics are vital for Australia’s hearing care sector and wanting to help retain their independence was one reason his business was a founding member of Hearing Business Alliance (HBA) 10 years ago.
“Running your own business is extremely difficult and isn’t for the faint hearted,” he says.
streamlines operations AudZone has emerged as one system that can ease this struggle, helping save clinicians time, reduce costs and streamline operations.
O’Neill first heard about it at an HBA conference. “Audiologist and co-founder Mr Christo Fourie talked about it in the early stages maybe three years ago,” he says. “I said, ‘Mate, you’ve got to do something about this – we need it now’.”
He then heard co-founder, audiometrist Mr Daniel Fechner, speak about it at an HBA conference a year ago and he’s been waiting with bated breath ever since.
“When they decided to go ahead, I was one of the first adopters,” O’Neill says. “I’d tried another AI scribe, but it wasn’t as good – it wasn’t doing it for us as it still required a lot of work, and I thought I might as well write my own notes.”
Seeking a more audiology-specific, intuitive option – AudZone stood out.
“AudZone, being audiologically based, understands the premise of what we’re doing in our appointments,” O’Neill explains.
“If I’m talking about something with a client, such as asking if they have trouble understanding voices on TV, it will expand that to a nicely worded paragraph in point form with context.”
HSP compliance a bonus
AudZone’s standout feature is its inclusion of HSP compliance along with about 50 audiology specific templates for different conditions. Fechner says it’s the only AI scribe that includes HSP compliance.
“AudZone automatically checks compliance on all HSP appointments, which is fantastic,” O’Neill says. “Having that compliance checker, if it’s as good as what I can see it being, it could almost be something that the HSP could adopt as part of its compliance model and say to audiology clinics – if you’re using AudZone as a compliance checker, we’re happy with that.”
The system integrates with CounselEar office management system. “Our HSP appointments cross correlate into AudZone’s calendar so if it’s an HSP fitting or assessment, when we jump into AudZone, it knows the appointment type and links it to the proper template and compliance for that appointment type,” O’Neill says.
A checklist appears and practitioners run through it, ensuring compliance. It also follows the general flow of a clinical appointment.
“It writes the patient notes, so they’re done when you finish the appointment,” he adds.
“When you read them, you see it’s picked up more information than you remember saying. Usually when I write notes, I get the main points, but this gets more information onto the table than we generally have.”
Saves three hours a day
O’Neill says AudZone transcribing patient notes saves him about three hours a day and he imagines it also saves his clinicians two to three hours a day each. Based on this, AudZone saves his six clinicians a combined 12 to 18 hours a day or 60 to 90 hours a week on writing notes.
“It frees up a hell of a lot of time,” he says. It provides him an extra day to dedicate to business management tasks that he can do at work instead of after-hours at home at night.
“I would previously spend 20 to 30 minutes after each appointment doing my notes, ensuring compliance and that I’d covered everything, but this does it all for you,” he says. “It includes all the HSP stuff, hearing aid checks, hearing aid discussions – which are almost duplicated for private clients – and workers’ compensation. It’s written by an audiologist and an audiometrist for audiology which is why it’s so intuitive.”
AudZone continually takes on board feedback and suggestions from users to further improve its offering. “It includes industrial screening, but I’ve suggested to Christo that it could have more for pre-employment testing and industrial screening such as three vowel averages and the percentage hearing loss,” O’Neill says.
“This would create a report at the end of the appointment, and all practitioners would have to do is click and paste and it’s done.”
The system is perfect for those across the board, whether they’re practitioners who have been in the industry for a long time or graduates just starting out, he adds.
A recent audiology student at his clinic was impressed, saying its inbuilt checklist made it much easier and took the pressure off missing things.
“It’s all there, step by step,” O’Neill says. “I can just engage with the client, give them 100% of my attention, have a conversation with them and the interaction is more personal because it allows me to be more client focused. Rather than looking at a screen and typing notes, I’m concentrating and asking the next question.”
Patients are also impressed, he says. He asks for consent to use the scribe and shows them how it transcribes notes. Importantly, he shows them that irrelevant personal information brought up while chatting such as how their family or their dog is, is not recorded as it only notes information related to hearing.
O’Neill is happy that data in the Australian-made scribe is held on Australian soil and not overseas. It meets Australian privacy and security requirements and laws.
As the business owner, he pays for all his clinicians to use the system, including an administrative staff member who checks compliance. So far, everyone has been 100% compliant using AudZone, he adds.
He pays less for his Melbourne employee who works part-time to use the system as AudZone has reduced fees for those working under this arrangement.
O’Neill is also looking forward to other great features coming out soon. “I’ve said to Daniel and Christo – whatever you’ve got, I want it,” he says. “There are also cochlear implant templates which I’m keen to use for cochlear mapping appointments.”
A huge advocate, O’Neill has been recommending AudZone in private audiology chat groups and publicly on social media.
“If any profession, or business owner, doesn’t jump on what AI has got to offer, they’re going to fall behind, and it will cost them time and money,” he says.
O’Neill suggests people give the free two-week trial a go. “You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain,” he says.
The AudZone team helps practitioners with integration and onboarding. There are also good training videos. “As a business owner, making time to get your stuff sorted is critical and if that means taking half a day to make sure it works, that’s priceless. Once it’s all set up, you can forget about it.”
For more information on AudZone features and best practices, see audzone.com.au.
