Welcome, everyone, to the webinar on Hearing Aids and Mobile Devices, Becoming Proficient. We're so glad you could be here today to learn more about the technology of smartphones and how they link to hearing aids. Your moderators for today are Sran Vincent, IHS Director of Membership and Marketing, and me, Esther Waldman, Membership Specialist. Our expert presenter today is Ted Minow. Ted is President and Owner of Hearing On Call outside of Chicago, Illinois. He became passionate about the hearing industry after seeing how rapidly technology was developing over the last ten years. In the past five years, he has worked directly with Apple's development team to develop mobile apps related to the hearing industry. For years, Ted has helped hearing practices develop their marketing strategies. After enough time doing this, Ted wanted to get in private practice and fit hearing aids, which led him to open Hearing On Call. His expertise with mobile devices, coupled with his experience fitting hearing aids, put him in a unique position to be able to help students become proficient in working with hearing aids and mobile devices. Ted has sought after across the country to teach hearing stores and clinics best practices on how to have successful outcomes with their customers. Ted has a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Buffalo in Health and Human Sciences, graduating with honors. We're very excited to have Ted as our presenter today, but before we get started, just a few housekeeping items. Please note that we are recording today's presentation so that we may offer it on demand through the IHS website in the future. This webinar is available for one continuing education credit through the International Hearing Society. We've uploaded the CE quiz to the handout section of the webinar dashboard, and you may download it at any time. You can also find the quiz and more info about receiving continuing education credits at our website, IHSinfo.org. Click on the webinar banner on the homepage or choose webinars from the navigation menu. You will find the CE quiz along with information on how to submit your quiz to IHS for credit. If you'd like a copy of the slideshow from today's presentation, you can download it from the handout section of the webinar dashboard, or you can access it from the webinar page on the IHS website. Feel free to download the slides now. Tomorrow you will receive an email with a link to a survey for this webinar. It is a brief and your feedback will help create a valuable content for you moving forward. Today we will be covering the following topics, how to prepare for an appointment knowing a smart device will be involved, how to set up Android devices and iPhones to pair to different hearing aids, step-by-step how to prepare your patients for success using smart devices with your hearing aids, quickly troubleshoot pairing issues, and step-by-step how to preempt more than 95% of your issues when working with smartphones and hearing aids. At the end, we'll move to a Q&A session. You can send us a question for Ted at any time by entering your questions in the question box on your webinar dashboard, usually located at the top, the right or top of your webinar screen. We'll take as many questions as we can in the time we have available. Now I'm going to turn it over to Ted who will guide you through today's presentation. Ted? Thanks, Esther. So welcome to the presentation. Just why we wanted to start by talking about why is smartphone and hearing aid use important. Overall, just wanted to give you all who are attending a view of where we're coming from in this presentation. My goal is to equip you to be proficient and to keep things simple when you're having your fitting visits and actually teaching either your staff or yourself how to have good outcomes with your patients, but also giving them a process so that it's manageable for your patients and employees or yourself to digest. So smartphone and hearing aid use, I know that some of the owners who may be on this call are really pushing accessories, but smartphones allow us to carry less gadgets and so we'll get into this a little bit later. They're going to allow people more and more today are streaming phone calls and music, but actually as fitters, by using the mobile apps and other things, it's going to give us more information so that we can be better fitters for our customers as well. I'm not going to spend too much time on this, but our practice actually does quite a bit of telecare. We have embraced it. They have webinars on this, but being proficient with some of the stuff that I'm going to teach you today is going to help you actually incorporate that into your practice. So just want to touch on that as well. I will make the argument today that the smartphone is the most important accessory. And again, people already have smartphones, so they're already carrying it. So if that can replace some of the accessories we're selling, you're going to have happier customers. They're more likely to use it because they're already using it. A lot of people don't know this, but the number two value of baby boomers are to be viewed as tech savvy. I love talking about my mother and stepfather when I tell people about this. This was actually pulled by a friend of mine who works for Pulte Homes and oversees a couple of Dell web communities. But when I go down to the villages, Florida, where my parents are, it's funny to watch them sit on their iPads, iPhone tablets, and they don't know what they're doing, but it's really important for them to show that they're using them. So this is a very big value, and this also just ties into them being able to use these devices with any hearing aids that they're using. Over-the-counter hearing aids are coming. So instead of just pushing this aside, you as a fitter, as a practice owner, are going to need to be seen as an expert. Do you think that the over-the-counter hearing aids are not going to have mobile apps associated with them? Of course they are. So it's really going to be important for us as dispensers, as audiologists, as ENTs, to be proficient with being able to do this. Our value is also going to be in the fitting, but this is an important part of it, especially with that. A lot of you may not know, but Apple is teaching classes at their stores with hearing aids and their software. Google is developing a native hearing aid support for the Android. This was last August in Circuit Breaker Magazine. Many of you know they're already working with ReSound. But even more importantly, there is something called Bluetooth 5.0 that is coming out. It's already out on a lot of things, but the newer phones, probably starting in 2020, are going to have that Bluetooth protocol. So currently, Apple is on Bluetooth 4.3, but it's in the force. 5.0 is going to be available on everything. So as new phones get released, that's going to be a protocol. Guess what? Hearing aid manufacturers are going to have Bluetooth 5.0 protocols. So again, this is something that is coming and why it's really important. Let's get started. Let's talk about some foundational habits. How do we set ourselves up for success? So like anything, we want to make sure that we're developing a good process. So think about when you were back in school or training or however you learned to do a hearing test. I know the first couple times I did it, I had no idea, but there's a certain order we go through, certain things we do every time. So we want to have a good foundation. We need to know the fitting software of the hearing aids that we're fitting. We need to learn the mobile app that would be associated with the hearing aids we're fitting. And then I list icon positioning. I'm going to just touch on this really quickly. When you download a mobile app onto the phone, I always like to have my employees or myself ask the customer, hey, can you hold your phone for me? And then show me how you open up your text messages or something. So you'll watch them, and if they're using their thumb, then you're going to want to position that icon for the app somewhere near where their thumb is touching the screen to make it real easy to get to. But these are just little things. Again, we'll touch on this in more detail. We're going to talk about setting goals for both yourself before a fitting appointment and for your patients. We're going to talk about adding new things over time. We do not want to overwhelm people, and we'll break this out a little more. And then most importantly, keep things simple. I cannot stress this enough. Think about all the things we're throwing at a patient when you do a fitting visit or when they come in. You're talking about care and cleaning, how to adjust the volume, how many hours a day, blah, blah, blah. And now we're putting another thing on top of it. So we want to keep things simple and make sure that we're giving them bite-sized increments so that they can actually have success. All right, let's move on. We want to talk to you about becoming proficient in both iOS and Android. For those who may not know, iOS is the operating software that Apple uses. I know a lot of you are very good with the Apple platform, but Android can get a little hairy, especially if you don't work with it often. First thing, keep things simple. It's really important. So I'm going to be stressing this throughout. Do not overwhelm both yourselves or your patients. So we want to keep things simple. Learn the basics and practice. I'm going to go back to the first time you touched a RIC hearing aid or the first time you shot an ear impression or the first time you gave a hearing test. Were you good at it? I know I wasn't. So it took some practice. So we want to learn the basics of this and practice. Practice on your employees. Practice on your coworkers. Practice on your family at home. But you want to learn the basics and have a little repetition so that when you see your patients, you're going to be a lot more comfortable with doing it. You're going to want to assess the patient's smartphone ability level. We're going to get into how we do this a little more, but just a couple simple things. Hey, I might ask, hey Esther, do you use mobile apps? And depending on what she answers, which ones do you use? So if the person's answering and they're stuttering, then that person probably doesn't have a very high smartphone IQ. But what if she says, hey, I'm using Yahoo Finance and I have WhatsApp, and then she starts rattling off a bunch of things? That person likely is going to be able to handle more. So a couple simple ways you can do that. Have a plan and prepare. So again, we're going to talk about how to make this part of your process. So how we can set up when you get to your fitting visits and just incorporate this in in a good way. And then I'm going to say this to all the owners out there. I know that we track how much time our employees or ourselves use on each fitting visit or when they're in visits with our customers. I'm going to make the argument to you that especially on a fitting visit, we want to have the patients do as much as possible by themselves. Guess what? This is going to add five to ten minutes to the fitting visit. But I can tell you because I track this, we have less follow-up appointments. We have higher patient satisfaction. So having the patients actually do and touch the screen themselves and go through these steps, even if you're sitting there explaining it to them, is really important. Again, owners out there, I just want to stress this. I would encourage you, this is not theory. I actually track this in my own practice with my employees. So again, having the patients do as much as possible, even if it adds a little time, you will have less follow-up visits. You will have more satisfied patients. All right, let's talk about the basics. How do we know what devices we can use? How do we update the software? What are we going to do when we download the apps? And then we're going to get into how we pair to the different devices. Okay, first, compatible devices. No matter who you're fitting, in our practice, we work with a lot of manufacturers. We're not really on one or two. But whoever you're fitting, you want to check the list on the manufacturer's website. So they will all publish what are compatible devices. So I would recommend you have a bookmark that's quickly and easily accessible, right on so you can just access it on your computer. For those of you who like paper, you can print it off. But I'm going to make the argument to you, if you want to be seen as an expert, think about when the OTC hearing aids are coming out. And then if you have to pull out a piece of paper versus pulling it up digitally, the person sitting across from you may not view you as tech-savvy doing it on a piece of paper. These are little things. Again, are they that important? Not necessarily. But I want to start changing the way you're thinking about this, especially as more people are aging and getting into that group and they've been in the workforce with technology. So what do we do if it's not on the compatible list? Does that mean we just throw our hands up in the air and don't try? No. So this is how I would talk. So I'm going to use Esther because she introduced me. But if Esther's phone was not on the compatible list, this is what I would say, this is what we teach. Esther, so your phone is not on the compatible list for this mobile app and those hearing aids. However, before we talk about even possibly you getting a new phone, we're going to give it our best shot because oftentimes we're still able to pair the phone so that you can use the mobile app even on phones that are not on the list. Now I want you to understand that the likelihood of there being some bugs or some connectivity issues is a bit higher. There's a reason it's not on the compatible list. But we are more often able to still get it to pair than we aren't. So you're going to want to make a statement like that and always say, we're going to try our best. So now you're on their side. You're telling them, hey, I don't want you to run out and get a new phone right away. Now all of us have suggested that someone get a newer phone, and that's fine. But in our practice, this is what we teach. And then the other thing you've done is, guess what, you've already told them that if they experience bugs or something, it's likely due to this. And even the people who forget, you can come back and say, hey, remember when I told you that it wasn't on the compatible list? This is probably what's going on. Okay, pre-appointment planning. First, find out what kind of phone they have. If you have an office manager or a receptionist, I would have them ask, say, you're doing your appointment follow-ups to confirm the appointments, whether you do it by text message, email, or whatever. After the appointment's confirmed via text message, how hard is it to have another text sent out? By the way, it is very helpful for us to know what kind of smartphone you have so that we can be better prepared for your visit. So something like that, or call them back, or at the end of the conversation, thanks, we'll see you. By the way, what kind of smartphone do you have? We want to just be better prepared so that you can get the best experience out of your visit tomorrow. You know, so in our practice, we would train to try and get that information before they come in. All right, before they come in, how many of you, I mean, if I was in a live presentation right now, I'd ask, how many people have gotten, you know, you have the iPhone and you're about to download the mobile app, and then, oh, nope, they have their setting where it requires a password even for a free app, and then how many people have had the person say, I don't know what that is, what do we do? So this is another thing that we like to remind people, hey, if you have an Apple ID, it would be really good for you to have the password, or at least write it down when you come in. Now, having them update iOS, again, this is the operating system. We do not have, this is something that is, I put as optional, this is something that, let's say you have someone coming in who's in their 40s. We might want to ask them, hey, do you know how to update your software on your phone? It would be best if you make sure it's on the latest iOS update. So if you think the person has the ability to do that, or if they had a demo set or any of those, you can have them do that before they come in. All right, Android, similarly, you have a Google Play ID and password. So same thing as we just discussed on the Apple ID and password, they would need their Google Play ID, or their Play ID and password. This will allow them to download apps. And again, have them update the phone software prior to the visit. Now, with Android, this is going to be different on all kinds of different phones. I don't want you all to think that you have to know how to update the phone software on every, whether it's LG, Motorola, Samsung, blah, blah, blah. So one thing I also want to point out here, if someone comes in with like a BlackBerry or a Windows phone, I'm not going to spend much time on them, because frankly, there's such a small percentage of the using of the public mobile devices out there. So really, that's something that you can use the same protocols as we're going to teach you on Android, but I'm not going to be spending much time on that. All right, let's talk about updating and downloading the apps. All right, first thing you want to do is connect to your Wi-Fi in your office. So I'd recommend you have a guest or something, but this is something you'll want to do early on and connect to the Wi-Fi. Consequently, this also is a point in time where you can actually assess the person's smartphone ability again. So say, hey, can I connect to your Wi-Fi? If the person sitting across from me is then saying, okay, what's the password? They had already clicked in there, and they're already at the point where what's your network name? Guess what? That person probably has a high smartphone IQ. If the other person looks at you and they say, what are you talking about? Then, you know, that would be on the other end of the spectrum. So we wanna connect to the Wi-Fi so that it's gonna be both faster on the download and also not use up their data plan if they have it. So on the iPhone, is it the latest iOS version? So right here we have a graphic that shows the red number one for software update. So this would be settings, general, software update. And then you'll wanna, early on in the appointment, we'll discuss this later, you wanna make sure it's on the latest iOS. Okay. You always wanna ask permission before updating this software. And let me tell you why. I actually have an employee who just, and we have customers who come in. And I can't argue with the fact that this has happened in the past, but sometimes when you update the native software on an iPhone or other device, the batteries start draining quicker. There's other things that people think go on. So you always wanna ask permission before doing this, just in case they're one of the people that doesn't want it updated. Now, I wanna pause. If they do say they don't want it updated, then you wanna go back and say, okay, Esther, we're gonna try and get the apps downloaded, but there's a reason why these companies follow the updates from Apple. So the chances we're gonna have some bugs or the app may not work properly are much higher when we don't have the latest operating system software on there. So I just want you to know, and I wanna tell you, we're gonna do our best, and we're gonna put this on here, but if you do experience some bugs, it's likely gonna be due to this. So again, we're just setting ourselves up so that when they have problems, you've already told them about it. Yes, most people are still gonna forget, but you can remind them of this conversation, and then you have something to fall back on. They're not as upset at you as they, and then they'll consider updating it. All right, and then we're gonna wanna download the apps in the App Store. So again, we'll get into this in a little bit. All right, on the Android, we don't have a graphic, because again, this is gonna be different for different phones. Generally speaking, you're gonna find the settings icon, and then you'll be able to find where the software update is. I could spend 15 minutes just showing you all the different places it could be here. So just, you can simply Google or YouTube how to update the software of that particular phone, and you'll find the answers. Again, we're gonna ask permission before we do any updates, same reasons as above. And then on an Android phone, you're gonna download the apps in the Play Store. All right, let's move on to pairing. We like to use videos or brochures. So all I did was simply put pairing iPhone with hearing aids into YouTube into a search, and this screenshot you're seeing to the right are the results of that. Guess what? You should be using YouTube a lot for these things. There are videos on just about anything. So a couple of the manufacturers have wonderful brochures with step-by-step and pictograms and whatnot, but I'm just showing you this search result. So for those of you who like to ask questions, call tech support. Well, guess what? Type your question into YouTube or Google, and a lot of the answers will come up. All right, you wanna follow best practices. So we'll get into detail, and this will be more in the troubleshooting stages. And then you wanna do this pairing as quickly as possible. So again, we've already had a fitting appointment. You've done paperwork. You've done the fitting. You've done adjustments. Maybe you're doing real ear. So there's a lot of things. So pairing the phone, you don't wanna be sitting there for five, 10 minutes just trying to get it connected. So do it as quickly as possible. But guess what? Don't panic when stuff doesn't work out. Stuff happens. I teach this stuff. I'm very good at it. And every week, something gets hung up with someone's phone. And it could be anything. They could have everything updated. I have one customer who's got a bunch of Russian apps on there. I have no idea how those are interacting with his iPhone. But he always has issues, and I'm sure it's due to one of those. We can't predict what's going on. So don't panic. Stay relaxed and understand that it happens to everyone. And we'll go through the troubleshooting steps a little later. All right, so when we're pairing to iOS, and I put iOS because this could be an iPad too. Yes, hearing aids do pair to iPads. Step one, we're gonna open the hearing aid battery doors. Or if they're rechargeable, maybe you stick them in the charger or turn them off. We're gonna turn on the Bluetooth on the phone. Now again, this would be in the settings menu. You wanna just make sure it's on. Then we're gonna go into settings, general, accessibility, and then MFI hearing devices, which is in the hearing section. I also wanna point out on the iPhone 5s and maybe some 6s, that won't say MFI hearing devices. It would just say hearing devices. But either way, it's in the same place. And this is the path that you wanna go. Once you're in there, you wanna close the hearing aid battery doors or turn on your rechargeables and let them get into pairing mode. Just like you would try to connect to the fitting software. Then they're gonna show up. So in this case, it would be Esther's hearing aids. And then you wanna wait until it says R plus L if it's a binaural fit, which most customers will be. And then you wanna tap that. So on the iOS, let me just step back here. Tapping the name of the hearing aid that's gonna take you in, and then it's gonna ask you to pair one side and pair the other. Again, I'm not gonna spend as much time here because most of you have training on this. There's tons of videos. Android, on the other hand, is gonna vary greatly depending on which phone that you have. So I'm gonna teach you a process right now that'll help have you cover most of what you're gonna do and give you the flexibility if you happen to be dealing with a phone you haven't worked with before. We're gonna have, the manufacturers have actually done a very good job of giving us a path to guide us through. So let's dig into this. Step one, we wanna unlock the phone and find the Settings app. Again, Settings is almost always a gear icon that'll look something like that. And again, it might look a little different, but you have a gear icon. Same on Apple, same on Android, same on Windows. So we wanna find the Settings app. Then we wanna go to Connections. Now on some phones, if you look on this graphic here, you see underneath Connections says Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Data Usage, Airplane Mode. In some Android phones, all of these are gonna be split out. So you'll just wanna go onto the Bluetooth. So there won't be a Connections, it'll just have Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, they'll be on a list on top of each other. So we're gonna wanna make sure that Bluetooth is turned on. So really important, obviously it needs to communicate. Next, we're gonna close the Setting apps and go to the Google Play app. So Google Play is where you download apps on Android phones. This is the icon. If you don't know how to find it, again, I would go onto YouTube and just type in Find Google Play app. There will be a lot of, and then you can put whatever phone beyond that. There'll be videos that'll walk you through that. All right, then you're gonna wanna search for Google Play. Then you're gonna wanna search for the appropriate app and install it. So here I just listed the Big 6 and their mobile apps on some of their latest hearing aids. Again, whoever you are fitting, find the appropriate app and install it. Okay, then you're gonna wanna open the app and follow the instructions to pair your hearing aids. So this is where things can start to vary a little bit. If you do the other steps up till this point, this is where things can diverge. Generally speaking, whatever manufacturer you're working with, their mobile app will actually tell you what to do next. So just follow what it's telling you to do. One thing I can tell you is, for instance, when you have certain Android phones with Starkey and Widex, you will need to actually go back to the Bluetooth menu and pair the individual hearing aids to Bluetooth and then come back to the app. On certain other manufacturers, I think this is Signia's up here, you actually wouldn't do that and you're gonna just pair it through the mobile app and follow the steps and then it'll send you back to the menu at the appropriate time. So again, just gonna depend on who you're working with, who you're fitting, what mobile app they have, because the previous generations do work a little different. But generally speaking, I like to teach, let the mobile app direct you through what to do next. Then we're gonna open and close the battery doors, put your hearing aids into the pairing mode, just like you do with a lot of other things. And then congratulate yourself, your hearing aids and the app are now paired. Again, follow the prompts in the app software and then they will be paired. So we will, if you have questions on any of this, so again, I could go into probably 20, 30 different paths depending on what phones and what mobile apps you're using. But generally speaking, what I want you to get from this is just know this process and let the mobile app of that manufacturer guide you through what to do next. All right, let's talk about best practices at delivery. Keep things simple. So again, we're at the fitting visit. You wanna make sure that it is in digestible snippets for your patients and customers. You wanna update the phone software and or download the mobile app early in the visit. Guess what? We have a lot to do with fitting, paperwork and everything. And those phone softwares can take a long time. If you just get their phone and get that going right at the beginning while you're getting some other things set up, it can sit aside and do its thing for 20, 30 minutes before you have to come back to it. So we like to teach to get that going early in the visit. You wanna assess the patient's smartphone abilities. We've already talked about a couple ways to do that, but it's really important because this is gonna be the foundation for the homework that you may give them. Again, have the patients do as much as possible during this visit. So I know we like to set expectations as to what the timing and whatnot will be, but I like to have my patients actually touch the screen themselves and do the things themselves, because they learn better. And then we're gonna give homework. So let's talk about that. What patient homework are we gonna give? We only wanna give two to three things. So these are gonna be action items for the first follow-up visit. Generally speaking, I like to tie these to things that you're having them. So if Esther was telling me she can't hear her husband when she's in the kitchen, I'm gonna try and tie it somewhat to that or at a restaurant or at the senior center when whatever it is. For a novice smartphone user, we're gonna wanna keep things super, super simple. So I actually just had someone this morning that pretty much all I gave him was to turn the volume up and down at certain couple situations, and he's got two programs. One is for one of his friends whose first name is Milt. So I renamed the program Milt, and he's going between his universal or the normal program and Milt. So for a novice smartphone user, this is a guy who has never owned a smartphone before, just bought his first smartphone. Again, we're keeping things very simple. An intermediate smartphone user, so this might be someone that I'll give, you know, again, we wanna tie them back to the listening environments that they're struggling with, but we might have multiple programs they're trying there. They may have some streaming things. We may want them, you know, you can open it up a little more, but again, back to the first point here, only give two to three things. For an expert smartphone user, these would be your younger engineer types or anything. I would just leave that to your discretion. See where they go. Generally, these people are sitting across from you already exploring the other parts of the app and asking questions about the equalizers and favorites, and you know, there's all kinds of things. So again, I still like to tell them, let's concentrate. I said, you can do whatever you want, but I want you to report back to me on these two or three things. So I give them homework. I focus them back on two or three things, and then the expert smartphone user will say, you can do other things, you can report back, but I absolutely wanna hear from you on these things. Okay, troubleshooting. So if you get nothing else out of today's presentation, I really wanna, I'm gonna, you know, slow down just a hair here, and we're gonna go through this. If you learn these steps that I'm about to teach you, you will preempt and be able to handle probably about 95% of issues that will come up in your office without having to call tech support. And guess what? If you do all these things before you call tech support, you can rattle off this list and really get to something because all these things are steps that they would be asking you to do at some point or another. So let's dive in. What are some common issues? I just did this this morning. So again, I teach this stuff. We were downloading, we were going onto his new iPhone and weren't able to connect to it. Well, guess what? I had saved it, but I hadn't shut down the dang fitting software. So even someone who's teaching this stuff, this will happen. So just make sure, I'm sure we've all done that. Anyone who's been fitting for some time, either they're still connected to the phone and can't get into the fitting software or vice versa. So just be cognizant of that and make sure you look there before panicking or going into other steps. Batteries are out of charge. Customer complains of battery drain. Oh my God, I cannot stand these battery indicators that they put into the mobile apps because frankly, they're not all that accurate. I know the people at whatever manufacturer will say they are, but I actually have a customer recently who the guy is a retired engineer. He has been measuring the wattage, the voltage, the amperage of the batteries before and after he puts them in. They have given me spreadsheets. They have tested RailVac, Duracell, PowerOne. So I'm just telling you that based on my experience and actual customers measuring this stuff, these battery indicators tend to not be so accurate. So we are constantly telling people that they should really just go on low battery when they hear the signal in the hearing aid itself and not worry about this too much. So we like to point this out when we're doing our fitting visits so that when the questions, again, we can come back and say, hey, remember when I told you about that, just pay attention to the indicators in your ear. The phone is not updated. Again, going back to updating the fitting software. So if a person's coming back in complaining about it and they're one of the people who refuse to update the operating software on the phone, you can remind them, hey, Esther, remember back when we, and I don't blame you. I completely understand why you didn't wanna update your phone software, but this particular issue is likely linked to that. So you kinda gotta make a choice. So either we can update the phone software or you're probably gonna have to live with these bugs that are happening. The phone is not compatible. So guess what? Even if we are able to pair the phone to the mobile app and it's not on the compatible list, it's likely a lot of those will still have bugs and not be working properly. I'm also gonna tell you that iPhone 5s and iPhone 6s have a lot of issues. So I know there's some people in this world that think that Apple will do your laundry and never has any issues. I am telling you, I have worked with their development team. I have worked with literally thousands of iPads and iPhones over the last bunch of years. And I promise you, there are tons of issues. So iPhone 5s and iPhone 6s are gonna be finicky. And actually, we counsel people to try and get 7s or later when they're doing that. But even if the phone is on the not compatible list, the point I wanna make is if you get it linked to the mobile app and you're having issues, this could be one of the issues that's happening. The receiver wire is bad. So there are manufacturers who run their Bluetooth signal through the receiver wire. And so the hearing aid may be working properly, but you're losing connectivity to the phone. What I would do is without throwing any of them under the bus, I just want you to call tech support for whoever you're fitting and ask them if they run their Bluetooth signal through the receiver wire. Because you could be pulling your hair out trying to figure out why it's not connecting and all it is is swapping out a receiver wire. So this happens very often with the manufacturers who use those and that is a very easy fix if you have stock for it. Old hearing aids are still paired to the phone. Someone's got their backup set or they have another mobile app on there. Guess what, guys? They tend to interfere. So I don't like teaching to have multiple sets of hearing aids paired to the same phone at the same time until the technology is a little better. Other Bluetooth devices don't seem to interfere, but I've just found more often than not when we have multiple hearing aids, they tend to not, they cause more problems than it's worth. So I am telling you for the time being, and this is 2019 in March, you'll wanna make sure that you only have one set of hearing aids paired and if you choose not to do that, just be expecting there may be some issues. All right, so I already alluded to this. Let's talk about troubleshooting iPhones quickly. So step one, we're gonna wanna unpair all hearing aids from the phone. So that means you're going to have to go into the same way you were going through the pairing process, but you'll want to hit forget and unpair any hearing aids that are paired to that phone. Uninstall all hearing aid apps. One thing a lot of people don't do is, I don't care if you have ReSound, Starkey, and Oticon on the same phone. Those apps shouldn't interfere with each other. But guess what? I have found that more problems exist until I delete them all and uninstall them all, and just leave the one on there that I'm using. So as part of this process, if you want to be thorough, I would recommend that you uninstall all hearing aid apps from that phone. Close all open apps and program windows. Okay, so for those of you who don't know, on the Android phones, typically on the bottom left of the screen will be a way for you to tile all the open programs, and then most Android phones will leave a close all button. Well, we're talking about iPhones now, so they make it a little more difficult. But you'll want to hit that home button twice quickly, and then start swiping all the open windows up. On the newer models, there's different ways. Either on the iPhone X or XS, you have to swipe up from the bottom and leave your finger on the screen. Again, I'm not going to get into all these ways, but we encourage you to close all open apps and program windows at this point in time so there's nothing running. Recommended but optional, update to the latest iOS update. Again, we've already talked about this, but this will be up to the discretion of the customer. You should be on the latest iOS if it's possible. If your manufacturer that you're fitting has an option in the fitting software to delete all Bluetooth pairings from the hearing aid, I would recommend you do this. It's a simple little step, but it just removes another variable from the process. Now, not all manufacturers have this in their fitting software, so again, I would just call in, and part of this phone call, ask them, am I able to delete all Bluetooth pairings from the fitting software? They'll simply answer yes or no. Now, you're going to want to open the hearing aid battery doors and leave them open next to the phone. I would encourage you, even if the batteries are somewhat new, replace the batteries at this point in time. Fresh batteries, even if they're slightly under 50%, oftentimes will lead to problems with pairing. So if you have rechargeables, again, turn them off or put them in the charging cradle so they're off, and leave them there. Now, we're going to completely power off the phone, and we're going to wait for one to two minutes. We want that phone to take its good old time shutting down and being down. Then we're going to power on the phone. We're leaving the battery doors open or the hearing aids off while the phone powers on, and then we're going to go through the normal pairing process. So basically, what we're trying to do here is remove any open variables and start with a fresh, clean slate, and then you're going to go through the normal pairing process. Okay, let's move on to Android. All right, first thing, we're going to have to delete from the Bluetooth pairing. So on the right here, we have a little diagram. So this happens to be from Phonak's new Marvel. The reason I put this up here is with the other manufacturers that don't have the direct-to-Android at this present time, you're only going to have the bottom two, which will have gear icons, but you need to hit that gear icon and either hit unpair or forget. And if you're using one that has the direct-to-Android, you need to do all three of these. So again, this is in the Bluetooth menu, and you want to actually forget these here. So you need to delete them from this menu. Uninstall all hearing aid apps. This is the same as we were just talking about with the iPhone. Close all open apps and program windows. Again, it's going to vary depending on the Android. But down here on the diagram on the right side, you'll see this little triangle and this little square here. Depending on which phone, that's probably where you're going to have to hit to pull open all the open windows. And most Android phones allow you to hit a close all button at that point. You're going to want to update the software on the phone. Again, we've already talked about this. Now, this is a subtle little thing that especially with some of the older Android phones and certain hearing aid apps that communicate not through the Bluetooth, but through the high-frequency sound through the microphones and the receiver on the phone. You need to turn the volume up on Android phones to over 60% when you have this situation. Now, this is probably more of a rarity than a norm. But what I'll tell you is, if you turn the volume on the phone to over 60% all the time, guess what? You're going to cover yourself for the ones you need to do it and the ones you don't. So we teach that you just do that anyways. That way, if that particular mobile app, that's how it communicates to the hearing aids, then you're covered. Delete all Bluetooth pairings, again, in the fitting software if available. Open the battery doors and leave them open. Replacing the batteries is a good idea. Again, same reasons as on the iPhone. Completely power off the phone and wait one to two minutes. Powering on the phone, leaving the battery doors open. And then we're going to go through the normal pairing process again. So these last two slides, if you take nothing else away from this presentation, if you learn these, and even have them printed off in front of you, and you can show the customer and say, we're going to go through these steps, and we just want to start with a clean slate. If we go through these steps and we're still having an issue, then there's something else going on, likely in the guts of the hearing aid or on your phone. But let's go through this. Now, when you present this or you show the person that you can go through these steps, boy, they feel good about it, that you know what you're doing. And the more you practice this, the better you're going to be. So I'm going to turn it back over to Esther, and we can open it up for some questions. Thank you, Ted. We're so excited that 178 of your fellow colleagues have joined us today on the webinar. We do have some time for questions. If you have a question for Ted, please enter it in the question box on your webinar dashboard. Our first question is from Joe. What do you do if you've completed all the troubleshooting steps and still can't get it to work? That's a great question. So when you've completed all those troubleshooting steps and you can't get it to work, this is when I would recommend that you call tech support. And I'm not talking audiology support. You want to call tech support at whatever manufacturer you're working with. When you get on that phone call, you're going to want to preempt them because they're going to – think about how often these guys have to tell people, hey, did you restart the hearing aids? Or did you power down your phone and restart it? So when you get on this call, you're going to want to tell them all the steps that you did. And then guess what? You can get right to it, and that phone call will be a lot less lengthy. The other thing I'll tell you is this is kind of like the customer service carousel. There are some people who really don't know what they're doing. I like to say thank you for your help, and then I hang up and call back in so I can get someone that does know what they're doing. Thank you. Our next question is from Susan. How do I know if the manufacturer I work with uses the receiver wire for Bluetooth communications to a phone? Okay. There's only – I would just call in and ask, and again, call to tech support of that particular model of hearing aid. And I would just ask them, hey, does this direct to iPhone or this direct to Android? Does it communicate – does your Bluetooth antenna exist in the receiver wire or not? And then just get the answer from them. Thank you. Our next question is from Renee. What do you do when people have trouble streaming from their phones to their hearing aids? Okay. So this is going to depend on – okay. So if they're using an accessory, then that's a whole different ballgame. You have to troubleshoot all. But if we're talking about an iPhone, my first question would be, is the iOS software updated to the latest version? The second thing would be is you go through the normal troubleshooting. So have you updated all that? I would unpair and go through the troubleshooting process so that you know you're starting from there. Then if you're still having problems, if you work with one of those manufacturers, it's the receiver wire, I would change those. And after that, once you've eliminated all those as possibilities, if you have another device, meaning if you have your own personal iPhone or Android in the office, and you can try and see if it works on another device, that would be the next thing I would do. And once that is done, then there's likely something wrong in the guts of that hearing aid, and I would send it back in for a warranty repair. Kyla K.: Thank you. Our next question is from Daniel. Any idea when iWatches will be capable of streaming calls into hearing aids? That's going to really depend on Apple if they desire to do this. So I don't think that based on my recent conversations that it's going to be as big a thing. However, at some point when the Bluetooth 5.0 protocol is released, and the newer versions of the iWatch come out, and newer versions of the hearing aid, I would guess that it's going to be compatible at that point. But again, that has less to do with the hearing aid manufacturers and more to do with Apple themselves. Kyla K.: Thank you. Our next question is from Vicki. What manufacturers have direct-to-Android pairing? Direct-to-Android, well, let me just break this up into two parts. All the manufacturers that we have worked with have the ability to have a mobile app on most of the newer Android devices. If you're referring to streaming without an accessory, to my knowledge there is only one right now, and that's Phonak. Kyla K.: Thank you. Our next question is from Don. What causes patients to lose connection after hearing aids are paired to iPhone when they get home or between follow-up visits? A lot of things. So the battery could be bad. There could be faulty. Again, this, what you're describing, tends to happen on iPhone 5s and 6s a lot more than the 7s or later. So there's any number of reasons. Generally speaking, though, when you pair to an iPhone, they do stay paired pretty well. So I would be looking at different things. Again, you want to, the receiver wire, the battery could be going low. So when batteries get down below 30% or 20%, it doesn't matter what it is, an iPhone, Android, the connectivity between the hearing aids and the mobile device tend to get spotty. So there's a lot of things that could be causing that. But if it's an iPhone 5 or 6, we just see that happening somewhat often. But most of the time it's just the phone is a little too far from their hearing aids. For some people who may have a little bit of a belly and they have it in their pocket down below, the signal may not be strong enough to go through the extra flesh to get up to their hearing aids. Also, direct-to-iPhone hearing aids that are not RICs, even the ones that are ITE, ITC, those tend to have a little less connectivity because, again, it's going through a little more flesh and bone in your body. Thank you. Our next question is from Kathleen. If the app works through high-frequency transmission, do you still need to unpair or forget devices in Android? Technically, no. But my answer to anything like this is you don't need to, but why would you want to leave that to chance? So I would recommend that you unpair. But yes, there are different communication protocols, but my experience has been when you leave more variables in there, there's more chances for things to go wrong. So to answer your question, no, you probably don't, but I still would. Thank you. Our next question is from Kristen. How do you handle a patient having both their car and hearing aids paired to their phone? Great question. This sucks. There is no good way to know, and so we tell people, hey, do you have Bluetooth in your car? And actually, I should put that in my presentation, so thanks for asking. But you've got to tell them before they leave, hey, your phone is going to pick a winner, and I have no idea whether it's going to like your hearing aids or your car better. So what you need to do is teach them how to switch between the two on their phone, or they can also choose in the audio routing, which is another subject, to never go to hearing aids while they're in their car. Generally speaking, we just like to tell people, I don't know which is going to win. Some people, their hearing aids pick it up each time. Some people, it's their car. If you have a place, you put your phone in your car, as long as either way, it's going to hear your voice, will be picked up pretty well. So unfortunately, there's no good answer to that, and it is a crapshoot as far as which is going to win the Bluetooth connection. Thank you. Our next question is from Bernice. Should you download an app for the patient first, or pair Bluetooth for phone calls first? It depends. Downloading the app is okay. I mean, you can download the app first. That's not going to hurt anything. And let's just talk about, if you're on an iPhone, you're going to still, even if you download the app, the app's going to say, hey, go into your iPhone menu and go through the pairing process for the iPhone. So on the Android, it's going to depend on which manufacturer you're working with. Like I said, I know that the Widex Evoke app and the Starkey Thrive app, it's probably better for you to just pair it in the Bluetooth menu first. But it doesn't matter if you get that out of order, because the mobile app's going to tell you what to do typically anyways. Thank you. And our next question is from Ismail. Is it helpful to change receiver and pairing if there's a troubled pairing if it is wire and is transmitting the Bluetooth? Yes, but I wouldn't just jump to that. Again, first, know that the manufacturer you're working with is transmitting through that wire. So if you're using one of the manufacturers that doesn't, then this is non-issue. So it's just going to depend on who you're fitting. I don't like to jump to that necessarily. If it is a problem, it's a very simple thing. You switch it out and see if it's working, and then you're done. But especially when some of these are starting to get out of warranty, those receiver wires can get expensive for either your practice or for the patient. So you just want to be sure. And again, it is very often the case that the hearing aid is working just fine, and just that Bluetooth connection on that receiver is the only thing gone. So I wouldn't necessarily default to that. First, find out if the manufacturer you're working with is running it through there. And then second, that's a very simple thing to check early on. Our next question is from Kathleen. What is transmission distance for hearing aids and Bluetooth at? Oh, it's going to depend. So I would refer you to each manufacturer's either their technical specs, which would be in the manuals that they provide. It's going to depend. I could be five feet away from mine, and it's on the other side of a lead and concrete wall, and I'd get no signal, versus being five feet away on the other side of drywall, and I'd have a perfect signal. So I would refer you to each manufacturer, what they have on their technical sheet. So this is just for the mobile app. Now for streaming, it's going to, again, depend on which phone you have and what's between you. But most of the streaming, they rate up to anywhere between 20 and 40 feet, I believe. But I've been able to replicate and get good streaming signal from greater distances. And then I also have issues going in different rooms, depending on what's in the walls and whatnot. Thank you, Ted. We're so excited. Thank you, Ted, for an excellent presentation. And thank you, everyone, for joining us today on the IHS webinar, Smartphones and Hearing Aids. If you'd like to get in contact with Ted, you may email him at ted at hearingoncall.com. For more information about receiving continuing education credits for this webinar through IHS, visit the IHS website at ihsinfo.org. Click on the webinar banner or find more information on the webinar tab with the navigation menu. IHS members receive a substantial discount on CE credits. So if you are not already an IHS member, you will find more information at ihsinfo.org. Please keep an eye out for the feedback survey you'll receive tomorrow via email. It may take a moment to answer a few brief questions about the quality of today's presentation. Thank you again for being with us today, and we will see you at the next IHS webinar.

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Troubleshooting Guide