Dr. Dornhoffer hopes for an increase in Bluetooth technology to allow for connection with hearing aids for listening to a patient’s heart, as well as more visual representations of alerts. “Making sounds directly clear to a hearing aid or quickly visually represented would be helpful,” he said. “For example, on facial nerve monitors, you must ensure colleagues recognize that you cannot hear the beep of the monitor—I ask a resident to let me know if the alarm goes off. When using a drill, you cannot hear the pitch changing as you get close to important structures; you must rely on visual cues.”
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May 2015Conferences
Dr. Dornhoffer has often felt frustration at conferences and committee meetings, particularly when sitting near the front of the room. “It is a struggle to hear what people have to say,” he said. “I would like to see more real-time captioning for all lectures and question-and-answer sessions—even as a single screen near the front of the room. This is particularly important, as I have found that sign language interpretation seems to be less frequent as cochlear implants become more common.”
“I came from an era when we were not comfortable talking about hearing loss,” added Dr. Hammerschlag. “Many doctors rely on PowerPoint during their presentations, and you can miss out on the flow of meeting if it varies from the information on the slides. Attendees talk from all sides of the room, particularly during question-and-answer sessions. By the time you locate the person asking the question, he or she is finished with the question, and the moderator routinely does not repeat the question. Then you have to figure out the question from the answer.”
Dr. Dornhoffer finds this to be an issue on the other side of the podium as well. “I am in an academic position, and when I am on stage giving a presentation, I get quite self-conscious about wanting to answer questions. I am expected to teach new, innovative techniques, but it is difficult to take questions from the audience if I cannot see their lips in the dark. I try to always have someone sit up close to the podium to help interpret, but it would be better to have monitors that can show captioning as I speak.”
Although there are challenges, Dr. Moreland stressed that DHoH medical students and residents are becoming more common, and they share the same goals of excellence in patient care and improvement of the healthcare system as other physicians. “I have been asked occasionally over the years by colleagues how we communicate with patients,” he noted. “Our experience has clearly shown that we communicate as effectively as anyone else, especially with reasonable accommodation and creativity. It isn’t just about how I communicate with patients—it is about the outcome. So long as the goals of providing the care patients need and communicating that information back to patients are being met, it is not quite as important what modality we use to communicate.”