Diffusion of Innovations and its Application to Hearing Care: Part 1
by Amyn Amlani, PhD In 1962, E.M. Rogers developed a theory on how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread. Specifically, this theory, Diffusion of Innovations (DOI), explained how an idea or product gains momentum and diffuses (i.e., spreads) through a specific population or social system. The principle behind diffusion is that…
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Decision Aids: A Mechanism to Advance Patient Care in the Evolving Hearing Care Market
by Amyn Amlani, PhD Healthcare has moved towards shared decision-making as an engagement strategy that allows providers and patients to work together in determining treatment intervention and management. Decision aids are part of the shared decision-making process that encourages active participation by patients in their healthcare decisions. Over the past few months, readers have been…
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Implementation and Effectiveness of Decision Aids in Patient Compliance
by Amyn Amlani, PhD Last month, the reader was provided an overview of the application of decision aids in health care. Recall that decisions aids, such as educational booklets, DVDs, and Web-based interactive tools, provide patients with information to guide treatment decisions regarding their health care needs, values, and preferences. In this month’s blog, we…
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Application of Decision Aids to Enhance Patient Values and Preferences for Care
by Amyn Amlani, PhD Shared-decision making is a core component of evidence-based health care, allowing for evidence to guide decisions about the treatment intervention of that individual patient while considering their needs, values, and preferences. In hearing care, providers are skilled at diagnosing hearing sensitivity but are less effectively in assessing whether the treatment they…
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US Hearing Aid Pricing: Part 5 – The Markup Ratio
The series on hearing aid pricing began in fall 2020 with a look at average nominal (Part 1) and inflation-adjusted (Part 2) wholesale costs. As we moved into 2021, readers were presented with findings for the average nominal (Part 3) and inflation-adjusted (Part 4) retail costs. In the fifth, and final, installment of this series,…
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