by Terry Mactaggart, President and CEO, Summus Hearing
If the hearing health problem is to be confronted effectively, we need to weave hearing care into more corners of health and community life. Beyond family physicians (who are typically unengaged and need to be incented), the current array includes the following:
Licensed Hearing Care Professionals
Approximately 27,000 hearing health providers are fully engaged.
- Audiologists: Doctoral and Master’s-level clinicians who perform diagnostic audiometry, assess balance disorders, fit and service hearing aids, and manage tinnitus.
- Hearing Instrument Specialists (Hearing Aid Practitioners): Trained to conduct hearing tests in adults and fit hearing devices when audiologists aren’t available.
- Otolaryngologists (ENTs): Physicians who diagnose and surgically manage ear pathologies—from chronic ear disease to cochlear implants.
Mid-Level and Allied Health Providers
A second tier that can share responsibility for screening, early detection, and referral is obvious yet currently underutilized. This includes:
- Nurse Practitioners & Physician Assistants: Can incorporate validated hearing questionnaires or whisper tests into routine exams and initiate referrals.
- Registered Nurses & Medical Assistants: Well-positioned to administer brief screenings during intake and chart flagged results for the physician.
- Speech-Language Pathologists: Screen for auditory processing issues in children and adults, helping catch subtle deficits.
Community and Non-Clinical Settings
Some are very engaged, such as:
- Occupational Health Specialists: Performing mandated noise-exposure surveillance and hearing conservation programs in industrial and military settings.
And to a lesser extent:
- School Nurses & Educators: Early identification of pediatric hearing loss through classroom screenings and referral to school-based audiology or ENT.
- Geriatric Care Managers & Home Health Aides: Routine hearing checks in home visits to seniors, with protocols for onward referral.
A very promising, yet underutilized, network includes:
- Pharmacists: Embedding kiosk-based or app-driven self-tests in store; counseling on ototoxic medications and when to seek audiologic evaluation.
Digital, Community-Based, and Patient-Driven Models
Existing and emerging providers, if more fully engaged, would make a material difference. For example:
- Teleaudiology Platforms: Telehealth is presently used by most family physicians. Adding remote screening tools and virtual consults that feed directly back to on-site providers is an obvious next step.
- Community Health Workers & Mobile Clinics: Scheduling pop-up hearing screening events at senior centers, community fairs, and faith-based gatherings in underserved neighborhoods is another avenue. We at Summus have had direct experience that validated that premise.
- Consumer Health Apps & Self-Tests: We are tracking this avenue as it is expanding quite rapidly. Yet to date, few if any have incorporated smartphone-based audiometry linked to provider networks for automated referral when thresholds fail. Our hearing health guidance platform does so and could easily be tucked into existing apps.
By distributing hearing-health tasks across this multidisciplinary network—and by equipping each member with simple screening tools, referral pathways, and collaborative workflows coupled with financial incentives—we can dramatically increase detection rates, accelerate intervention, and stem the tide of untreated hearing loss.
About the Author
Terry Mactaggart, MBA, is the president and CEO of Summus Hearing. He can be contacted at [email protected] or visit https://summushearing.com
