Standards Development

Scope

This document is a supplement to ISO 21388 which applies to hearing aid fitting management (HAFM) services offered by hearing aid professionals (HAP). It focusses on tele-services which may substitute, or complement services defined in ISO 21388, and it defines services which shall be provided in the facilities of the HAP. Moreover, this document specifies important preconditions such as education, facilities and systems that are required to ensure proper tele-services. If not other stated all definitions and requirements of ISO 21388 also apply for this standard without further notice. Furthermore, it is tried to keep the structure if ISO 21388 to make it easier to use both standards together. It is recognized that certain populations with hearing loss such as children, persons with other disabilities or persons with implantable devices can require services outside the scope of this document. Other assisted tele-services provided by non-hearing aid professionals, self-fitting, and other nonhearing care related will also be outside of the scope.

Purpose

The importance of tele-service delivery and accessibility in hearing aid fitting management (HAFM) has highlighted with the corona virus disease 19 pandemic in hearing aid markets including manufacturers, dispensers, service providers, and hearing aid users. A tele-service as part of HAFM(tHAFM) is an alternative method delivering essential hearing intervention services through telecommunication. Optimal outcomes of tHAFM are supported by comprehensive protocols and accordingly, the whole process of tHAFM needs to be normalized for its efficiency and transparency, user satisfaction, and cost effectiveness.

Two issues are expected to influence hearing aid markets and stakeholders, and lead to the exploration of the standardization of tHAFM in this proposal. First, tHAFM is prevalently used among service and industry sectors with its comprehensive procedures not systematically explicated. Second, a variety of non-normalized guidelines for tHAFM has led to non-uniform care, outcome variability, and dissatisfaction of the use of hearing aids.

The main purpose of this proposed standard is to provide a general process for tHAFM and to achieve the best hearing rehabilitation outcome equivalent to traditional face-to-face services, which can be accomplished through adequate education and service environments, skills of professional and a systematic approach to tHAFM.

The proposed standard thus covers important preconditions such as professional liability and training, service facilities and systems that are required to ensure proper teleservices. The general processes of HAFM with tele-service labels defines services which shall be provided in the facilities of the hearing aid professionals and consists of client candidacy assessment, general assessment, pre and post counselling, fine-tuning, and follow-up, thereby eliminating nonuniform practices. The outcomes of this study are expected to improve potential benefits such as quality of tele services in hearing aid fitting, user satisfaction, and cost effectiveness, for all relevant stakeholders.

The proposed standard makes general use of recent guidelines such as: WHO-ITU global standard for accessibility of telehealth services (2022), Teleaudiology Guidelines. Audiology Australia (2022), Telepractice. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (2022), Tele-Audiology. Ear Science Institute (2021). ( to be added more at a later stage)