In 1999, my colleagues and I at New York Presbyterian Hospital evaluated an interesting patient. So interesting, in fact, that it resulted in a case study published in The Hearing Journal. The paper, titled “Mail-Order Hearing Aids and Patient Safety: A Case Study”, was based on a patient with long-standing history of hearing loss.
For financial considerations, she decided to purchase a hearing instrument through mail order instead of relying on the services of her local hearing healthcare provider. Ultimately she sustained a perforated eardrum and infection due to a piece of the device that became dislodged in her ear. Our conclusion was that “no avenue exist(ed) to ensure either patient safety or satisfaction in the generic device, mail-order approach”. The case study clearly demonstrated “that unregulated sale of mail-order hearing aids may endanger potential users”.
Fast forward eight years…A March 1, 2007 press release titled "MyHearPod.com Introduces Amazing New Line of 32-Channel Hearing Aids” hits the wires. The North Carolina based company was founded in 2005 and claims to offer “hearing aid shoppers a choice” to “paying thousands of dollars for a hearing aid at a retail store or having to settle for a low quality aid over the internet”. The president of the company added, “The company offers a level of customer service and quality that rivals most brick and mortar locations”.
When contacted, the representative on the other end of the line was very pleasant but her responses to some questions were, well, questionable (feel free to contact me for a snapshot of that discussion). Although some of the representative’s responses were not quite in line with the company’s press release and website, the exchange was surprisingly similar (and alarming) to the conversations I held with other mail-order hearing aid dealers over eight years ago.
Hearing loss is a complex issue and it can be caused by a number of abnormalities, some as simple as wax in the ear others as complex as a neurological disorder. For this reason, if you believe you might have a hearing loss, it is important to seek out the services of your local audiologist/ otolaryngologist team, after your visit to your primary doctor. A comprehensive audiological evaluation will serve as the basis to determine appropriateness for hearing instrumentation (not a sonogram as reiterated by the friendly rep from MyHearPod.com).
Today’s hearing instruments are very smart and perform very well in noisy environments, but no technology has the ability to completely block out background sounds. This is a job only your brain can perform. Pricing can vary from one region to another, but you can rest assured that if you see a licensed hearing healthcare provider you will be presented with all of the options appropriate for your needs. In addition, you will have a service provider on retainer for you for as long as you have your devices.
Finally, I believe it is important to note that I have not had an opportunity to use the devices offered by MyHearPod.com. The company might in fact be offering a technology of quality and value. Regardless, the risks that were evident over eight years ago still seem to exist with MyHearPod.com’s offerings. The take-home message: this business model and simplified path to fitting complex health-related technologies should be questioned by the wise, and informed, patient.
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