What are the ramifications of being directional in the phone ear?
The signal from the phone may not be as loud as if you are in directional. The phone ear and the focus ear should be the same if the reason for using the phone on that ear is better discrimination. If the patient prefers using the focus ear, then manual switching to telecoil or an acoustic phone program may be recommended if trouble hearing occurs.
What if a patient has a preference for using one ear over the other on the telephone?
The focus ear can be overridden, depending on which ear is easier to understand speech with on the telephone.
If a patient has a preference for using the telephone, for example, on the left ear, but the software selects right ear focus, which ear should be the focus ear?
The left ear should be the focus ear.
When will ReSound have an Auto-t coil?
The Alera™ features PhoneNowTM which automatically switches the device to an acoustic phone program when a magnet is held near the device. This is the same principle as the auto t-coil. Upcoming products will also feature PhoneNowTM and those with telecoils will give the option of automatic switching to either an acoustic or telecoil phone program.
Alera 60 and 61 have a PhoneNow, which uses GMR (Giant Magnetoresistance) sensor to detect a magnetic field in the PhoneNow feature. The user should have a magnet attached to the handset of their phone for this feature to be used reliably. When the PhoneNow program is triggered by presence of the magnet, the hearing aid automatically switches to an acoustic telephone program.
My patient says that his phone at home makes PhoneNowTM switch to the phone program without a magnet. Does he even need to put a magnet on the phone?
He or she will have the most stable performance with a magnet on the phone. The magnetic field strength from a hearing aid compatible phone can vary during use, which may cause the Alera™ to switch in and out of the phone program.