At the AudiologyNOW! Conference in Dallas, the Ida Institute distributed copies of A Possible Patient Journey, a practical tool to assist hearing care professionals chart each patient’s unique experiences of hearing loss.
A Possible Patient Journey invites users to explore past and potential future experiences to gain a fuller appreciation of an individual’s unique hearing loss “journey” and increase the potential for positive outcomes.
Developed by the Institute's faculty and staff, the patient journey model represents the collaborative thinking of 65 hearing and health care professionals from around the world who participated in the Institute’s first seminar series, “The Process of Defining Hearing.”
“We are pleased at the feedback we have received at AAA, delegates have been very positive about using the tool as a starting point for discussion,” says Lise Lotte Bundesen, director of the Institute “A Possible Patient Journey is designed to assist hearing care professionals in facilitating communication with patients and their families, with colleagues, and with students.”
The Institute recognizes that A Possible Patient Journey is only one of many ways to approach the experience of hearing loss. As with all models, it cannot fully depict all of the complexities of a patient’s journey of hearing loss but it can be used to foster discussion that may challenge, re-model, or re-configure the experiences depicted.
To assist in addressing such discussions as well as the complexities of culture, health care structures, medical/retail models of care and other factors that impact the patient journey, the Ida Institute has created an online template at www.idainstitute.dk that enables practitioners to create individual patient journey maps.
My Ida membership is required to access the online patient journey tool. Membership is free at www.idainstitute.dk and open to hearing and care professionals and all others interested in the dynamics of hearing loss.