My patients using LACE are delighted

My patients using LACE are delighted to be doing something besides waiting for the hearing aids to kick in

By: Dr. Jane Watson

Clinical Audiologist and owner of Audicles Hearing Services, San Antonio Texas

It was only six weeks ago that I started trying LACE in my practice, and I’ve already become a convert. My motivation wasn’t reducing returns, as the return rate in our clinic is minimal. My introduction to LACE was a lecture by Dr. Robert Sweetow a few years ago. What finally got me started was a number of patients coming to us with articles or other information about LACE. I decided to try it out on patients with a variety of hearing losses to see how much of a difference it would make to them. To maximize my chances of initial success, I deliberately picked bright, active people who I thought would be diligent about doing LACE at home, and was happy that all six patients I offered LACE to jumped at it. The woman with the greatest hearing loss is a candidate for a cochlear implant; I was very impressed that LACE works for her. She likes the helpful hints the most, and even quotes them to me! She has done all 20 sessions and felt like she got some important information and coping skills.

Continue Reading This Post…

Developing a Breakthrough Strategy in LACE Compliance

Developing a Breakthrough Strategy in LACE Compliance
By: Trisha Ostermeier, A.u.D., Clinical Audiologist
Evergreen Speech & Hearing Clinic, Redmond, Washington

Evergreen Speech and Hearing Clinic is a private practice with three locations in Redmond, Kirkland and Bellevue, Washington. The audiology department consists of five Doctors of Audiology who regularly collaborate on program development to keep improving patient outcomes. Over two years ago, this collaboration resulted in the creation of a new program to better meet the needs of our hearing patients. During the development of this new program, the product LACE was introduced to the team, and we integrated it into our program.

How did we apply LACE?

Continue Reading This Post…

LACE – a Tool Worth its Weight in Gold!

LACE – a Tool Worth its Weight in Gold!

By: Ross Osborne, B.C.H.I.S. Miracle-Ear Franchisee, Columbia TN

I have been improving my patients’ quality of life for over 16 years, and have been using LACE with my patients for almost a year now. I have seen a lot of new ideas hyped, only to find that they were just gimmicks without any real benefits or proven results. I have always been looking for that extra edge to help my patients in difficult listening situations, and until now, I have had very limited success finding that solution.

Continue Reading This Post…

Getting Your Patients To Use LACE

Getting Your Patients To Use LACE

The following correspondence between Juliette Sterkens, an Audiologist and co-owner of Fox Valley Hearing Center in Oshkosh, Wisconsin and Melody Martin, an Audiologist and co-owner of Martin Audiology in Texas and long-time LACE advocate, offers some pointers that could be valuable to virtually all practitioners seeking an effective protocol for integrating LACE into their hearing aid dispensing practice.

Hello Melody,

I remember talking to you at one of the AAA meetings when you had a poster session. I too own a private practice and I started using LACE about a year ago after that meeting. I offered LACE with binaural hearing aid fittings and also sold the software to my existing users. After about 6-8 months I became frustrated with the low completion rate among my patients. I found that some did very well and enjoyed the tasks, but the majority either did not start and/or complete the program. I kind of gave up on LACE but recently attended one of Dr. Sweetow’s presentations, and became once more convinced that using this program has to be a part of every hearing aid fitting.

How do you manage this?

Continue Reading This Post…

You Don’t Need to Have a Hearing Loss to Benefit from LACE

You Don’t Need to Have a Hearing Loss to Benefit from LACE

By Frank Butts, Ph.D.; Co-owner of Hearing Clinics of Virginia, an eleven-year old practice in Richmond, Virginia

I am a bit out of the ordinary in the world of Audiology and dispensing of hearing aids, having earned my Audiology Ph.D. with a specialization in temporal masking, a form of central auditory processing, focusing on the aging auditory system. We have three offices in the Richmond area with seven audiologists. Our group dispenses hearing aids to about 80 patients per month. We deal with lots of geriatric patients older than 70.

I was attracted to LACE for several reasons:

Continue Reading This Post…

LACE Has Improved My Return Rate

LACE has improved my return rate while taking a ton of work off my plate
by Crystal L. Chalmers, Au.D Clinical Audiologist and owner of North State Audiological Services, Chico, CA

My patients and I love the LACE aural rehabilitation program. Nearly 100% of my patients are provided with LACE when they are fitted with new hearing aids, regardless of whether they are first-time or experienced hearing aid wearers. I love it because it is such a great tool for successful aural rehabilitation, and aural rehabilitation is the very foundation of clinical Audiology. The patients love it because they can see first-hand the progress and improvements that they make after every session.

Continue Reading This Post…

Dr. Sweetow Wins Distinguished Award in Audiology

Robert W. Sweetow, PhD, a clinical professor of otolaryngology and director of audiology at UCSF Medical Center since 1991, and co-developer of LACE, has received the 2008 Distinguished Achievement Award from the American Academy of Audiology.

Sweetow received the award on April 2 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The announcement of the award appeared in the American Academy of Audiology’s March/April edition of Audiology Today.

“Dr. Robert Sweetow is a gifted clinician, teacher and researcher,” the bulletin reported. “Dr. Sweetow has provided personal care for many patients with hearing loss, and he has helped countless other audiologists to improve their care for people with hearing loss by his teaching and research. Audiologists around the world recognize the many contributions made by Dr. Sweetow in the areas of aural rehabilitation, hearing aids, tinnitus, counseling and forensics.”

Continue Reading This Post…

Starkey found a 40% drop in the return-for-credit rate with just a few sessions of LACE, versus non LACE users

Interview with Melody Martin, Au.D., Ph.D., Owner, Martin Audiology
Topic: Texas Jam, EarStore and LACE

Paul Dybala: Welcome, everybody. This is Dr. Paul Dybala with Audiology Online and today I have the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Melody Martin of Martin Audiology. She’s agreed to talk about some interesting and exciting things happening with her practice, in addition to some ground-breaking projects that she’s been working on with Starkey and the LACE aural rehab program. Melody, thank you so much for taking time to meet with me and the rest of the Audiology Online readers today.

Melody Martin: Well, I really appreciate the opportunity, Paul, and I appreciate the interest. We’ve got some really exciting things on the horizon here.

Dybala: …The other thing that I wanted to talk with you about today is your experience using the LACE aural rehab program, which is now available through Starkey. Just to start, could you give us a quick overview of what LACE is, maybe for some of our readers who may be less familiar?

Continue Reading This Post…