MARKET I N T E R V I E W
‘We are world’s largest hearing service provider’ Samit Verma, CEO, Amplifon India reveals more about the huge gap for hearing aid services, needs for specialised clinics for hearing aid services, the company and its services, in conversation with Raelene Kambli Is hearing care still a less important aspect within the Indian healthcare sector? Hearing speech and sounds is crucial for communication development of a child as well as for other human abilities and social adaptation subsequently in life. Unfortunately, for various reasons hearing care has not drawn enough attention in India. There have been various studies in India on etiology and prevalence of hearing loss on regional basis which shows that the rural population is more affected than the urban population. Economic background, along with the lack of awareness, is partly responsible for lesser demand for hearing care. Most importantly, hearing care has not been accessible as it was available in select cities. Hence, people with hearing loss continue to manage with it without professional help. What role does specialised hearing care clinics play in meeting this gap? There is a dire need for specialised hearing care clinics with uniform standard care across India to provide right hearing care solutions. At Amplifon, our immediate aim is to reach out to maximum Indians through a widespread presence and only growing the footprint. In our clinic, we have expert audiologists and customer service officers who have experience in dealing with people across age groups with different hearing deficiencies. We provide hearing solutions and hearing aids from the world's leading manufacturers.
Amplifon is focused on improving the hearing of people through excellence in customer care and extensive counselling process. In case of children, detecting and treating the hearing loss early is a significant step towards improving the quality of your life. We make use of the latest clinical procedures and technological advancements. The latest digital technology means that our hearing aids are small, discreet and comfortable. And we offer a free lifetime aftercare service so that you always have the best possible hearing solution for your needs. What are the challenges faced by such clinics? The incidence of hearing deficiencies is on the rise in India with lack of awareness among people about specialised hearing care. The awareness about the specialised hearing care is at a nascent stage in the country and needs to increase at a rapid pace. Also, people are uncomfortable wearing hearing aids due to the cosmetic appeal and taboo attached to the hearing aids. We are reaching out to the public at large through media and camps to improve awareness and understanding. We have created special counselling tools inside the clinic for better appreciation of the solutions that we provide. How many such clinics exist in India? Who are the major players and what is their market size? Are these domestic players?
Amplifon is the world’s largest hearing service provider with over 5,500 clinics in 22 countries.We use the latest audiology equipment in diagnosing hearing loss Currently, there are around 2000-3000 such clinics in India but the quality of services delivered varies a lot. Most of these players have individual clinics. Only recently global players like Amplifon are in India. What are the kinds of
services provided by Amplifon clinics? Amplifon is the world’s largest hearing service provider with over 5,500 clinics in 22 countries. To create a difference and to provide a high quality hearing healthcare, Amplifon uses the latest and state-of-the-art audiology equipment in diagnosing hearing loss and for the fitting of hearing devices. This ensures that the most professional expertise and an excellent on-going client care program are provided. We are 100 per cent focused on one thing – provision of excellent audiology healthcare. We want all our customers to be completely satisfied with their hearing aids and to get the very best from them. After two weeks of fitting a hearing aid, Amplifon audiologists review it to check the aided benefits and offer five-point service for free for all the customers to ensure maximum benefits from hearing aids. At Amplifon, we believe in offering the widest variety of solutions to our customers. Our continuous endeavour is to provide end-toend solutions to every client. We are truly independent since we offer something quite different from many others in the industry, such as: Diagnostic audiological services (Adult): ◗ Pure tone audio logical assessment ◗ Speech audiometry ◗ Middle ear analysis using tympanometry and reflexometry ◗ Hearing aid candidacy evaluation using speech
discrimination tests ◗ Candidacy evaluation for BAHA Rehabilitation services (Adults): ◗ Rehabilitative counselling ◗ Hearing aid selection and demonstration of effectiveness ◗ Objective approach in hearing device fitting and fine tuning ◗ Clinical analysis of aided and unaided benefits ◗ Rehabilitation of cochlear implant clients including cochlear mapping ◗ Selection and fitting of assistive listening devices Hearing services (Children): ◗ Neonatal hearing screening using otoacoustic emission tests ◗ Pure tone audiometry/conditioned play audiometry ◗ Brain stems evoked response audiometry ◗ Hearing aid selection and fitting ◗ Candidacy evaluation for cochlear implants ◗ Parental counselling How is Amplifon different from the rest of its competitors? The Amplifon Group, with 60 years of experience, is a worldwide leader in hearing care service providing the most innovative hearing solutions. We aim at providing the best audiology and hearing care services available in the country via a team of highly qualified professional audiologists, trained as per international protocols. raelene.kambli@expressindia.com
EXPRESS HEALTHCARE
19
May 2014