Groups like the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), the American Academy of Audiology (AAA), and the Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA) can help you stay up to date with the latest research, techniques, and best practices in the field.  In addition, these organizations have lots of valuable information about upcoming industry events, professional development and networking opportunities, etc. If you aren’t already part of these associations, go join them immediately! 

Publications such as the Journal of the American Academy of Audiology and the International Journal of Audiology can help you stay informed about the latest research and trends in audiology. It’s good practice to read industry publications regularly to see what’s happening in audiology and understand the latest trends, techniques, and technologies that are emerging. 

Attending webinars and online courses can be an excellent way to learn about new techniques, technologies, and treatments in audiology. Many professional organizations, universities, and companies offer these types of educational opportunities, and the online format makes them convenient to join from anywhere. Auditdata offers insightful webinars that you should check out, including this new one about discovering the optimal clinical operations solution!  

Attending conferences and workshops is a wonderful way to network with other professionals in the field and learn about the latest developments in audiology. Large industry organizations – including AAA, BAA and EUHA – hold informative conferences, workshops, and other events. There are also smaller, more local conferences all over the world, which offer amazing opportunities to connect with industry colleagues in your area. 

Continuing education is essential in audiology because it allows you to learn new skills, keep up with the evolving audiology industry, stay updated on the changing tech environment to find helpful new solutions for your clinic, and increase your confidence so you can do exceptional work. Participating in professional development opportunities can result in higher job satisfaction, as well as elevated performance, productivity, and morale. Be sure to follow audiology associations, universities, and industry blogs and social media feeds to stay informed about new continuing education and professional development opportunities on the horizon.  

Audiology clinics strive to provide high quality hearing care – every day, for every patient. However, most clinic owners don’t know and cannot control what goes on inside the hearing booth. That’s why clinics around the world rely on Auditdata Measure, a portfolio of audiological equipment run by advanced software that lets you manage and optimize your clinical workflows based on data-driven insights. Standardizing, benchmarking, and optimizing your clinical processes means higher clinical performance, better quality and, ultimately, happier patients. Measure’s high-quality audiometers deliver all the necessary testing protocols to drive clinical quality and the patient experience. Many audiometer types are available, including portable tools that are invaluable for audiologists conducting hearing exams out in the community, such as at patients’ houses, in nursing homes, at senior centers, etc. Measure provides all the testing module types audiologists need, including pure-tone and speech audiometry, as well as a Real Ear Measurement module. The challenge is that often, these clinical tools are not integrated with the rest of the patient data. This means that there is a lot of double-tapping and figuring out which data is the latest updated. If you decide on a system that links these two data sources, you save a lot of time and improve data quality by having one source of truth.  

Many time-intensive administrative tasks can be easily automated when you use a PMS. The right Practice Management Software will automate and streamline your practice’s scheduling, administrative, and billing functions (among others). A PMS allows audiology practices to easily capture patient demographics, schedule appointments, send out automated appointment reminders, preregister patients, manage billing, generate reports, handle reimbursements, and more. Auditdata’s PMS, Manage, was created specifically for the audiology industry, and its features and functions help healthcare clinics streamline, simplify, and automate tasks to boost efficiency, accuracy, transparency, and compliance.   

Increase collaboration among your colleagues with Google Docs, a free web-based application that allows you to easily share documents with colleagues, which the entire team can edit and update. You’ll never have to worry about version control or which information is most updated with this helpful tool. Also, Dropbox, a cloud storage provider used as a file-sharing service, makes it quick and simple to share files, photos, videos, files, and documents with your teammates. Suppose you’re working with your colleagues on updating your clinic’s website and need to share (and edit) numerous photos. Dropbox makes this task much easier without having to email multiple (potentially large) photo and video files, which can be time-intensive and inefficient. Patient documents can also be safely and centrally stored in Manage.  

You likely understand the importance of updating all your social media platforms multiple times per week, but sometimes (often!) you get busy with other responsibilities and your posts get delayed or forgotten. Hootsuite to the rescue! Hootsuite is an amazing resource that lets you manage all your social media in one place. This tool makes it much faster and easier to execute effective, engaging social media strategies to boost patient engagement, expand your clinic’s reach, and drive more traffic to your practice. With Hootsuite, you can post updates and review (and respond to) posts on more than 35 popular social networks, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. One of the best features is that you can schedule posts in advance – across multiple platforms – so even when you get busy, your social media content will automatically be posted at pre-determined days and times. Hootsuite also measures your social ROI, so you can determine how well your posts are doing, measure engagement, etc. You’ll also want to check out Canva, a simple, intuitive, user-friendly graphic design tool. Canva lets you create professional-looking social media graphics, even if you don’t have a graphic designer on staff. Anyone can use Canva – even if they have no design experience whatsoever – to make their social posts look slick, eye-catching, and memorable.