From time to time this questions gets asked and I have to
respond. Until someone can change my mind, here is the answer
At the present time there is support for storing audiograms.
I cannot see why people want to do this, but feel free to customize
the program if you want to. To do this, see the section: Customizing the Hearing Office Lite Program.
I think that it is a waste of time to hand enter audiograms
into a computer. It is not that I am against storing the information,
I just don't think that it is very efficient to pay someone to
sit and enter audiograms. What can you do with the information
once it is entered? It is much simpler to be able to discuss
an audiogram with a patient with the graph on a piece of paper
that you can write on. Have you ever tried explaining an audiogram
on a computer screen to a patient. It is very hard to do. Try
drawing on a computer screen.
At one time I did experiment with using the audiogram for
printing new order forms and repair forms. Basically I output
our office form for new orders. It was a failure. The order technicians
at the labs hated having to manually transfer our form on to
their form. There were also numerous errors that occurred during
the transfer. Hearing aid companies use a computerized wand and
tablet to enter audiometric information into their computers
from the order forms that they provide to you. These tablets
are set up/calibrated for their forms only. I would need to digitize
all of the various different order forms for all the hearing
aid companies for the audiogram to be correctly placed. This
just isn't practical. If there was a standardized form for all
the companies, I would feel different.
The next issue involves dumping data from the audiometer
to the computer database. Same problem as above. There is not
a standardized interface available for all audiometers. What
vendors that do have audiometers with a software interfaces,
have their own software. This software won't work with any other
vendors audiometer. I simply do not have the time to write the
software interface for every audiometer that supports data transfer.
If you have a better way of doing things, let me know. I
am open to suggestions.
