Project Quality
Management: Prof. Dr. Dr. Birger Kollmeier, Universität Oldenburg
Topic:
Development of and initial implementation steps for a quality network for hearing-aid acousticians
Outline:
An international operating, pre-competitive research and development institution like HörTech must be alert to practical applications of its work. Therefore, it is our company's special concern to meet practicioners' wishes as best as possible and to allow them a chance to participate in HörTech's competence and evolving innovations.
In cooperation with the National Guild for Hearing Aid Acoustics (Bundesinnung für Hörgeräte-Akustik / BIHA) and other HörTech partners from the Weser-Ems Region, concepts for a quality network are being developed and tested in pilot projects in Project VIII / Quality. This quality network could be a potential design for quality management concepts developed by the BIHA for member companies.
The quality network's goal is to support participating hearing aid acousticians and to include them in HörTech by establishing a quality assurance system and service offers jointly organized by HörTech and BIHA. Due to the therewith achieved standards in hearing aid treatment , the quality of treatment and rehabilitation with hearing aids are to be guaranteed and increased on the one hand and on the other, participation in the quality network should become a competitive advantage for hearing aid acousticians. The essential components of this envisioned quality network are:
- Determination and compliance with particular quality standards in hearing aid acoustics
- Advanced education program and general conditions for continuous training for participating hearing aid acousticians
- Service for individual hearing aid acousticians (technical support, service websites, hotline)
- Quality checks for conducted hearing aid treatments by an institution impartial to the individual hearing aid acoustician
- Public relations, steering awareness towards quality aspects of hearing aid treatment
In the current Project "Quality", requirements and first implementation steps to establishing a quality network for hearing aid acousticians are being created by
- defining network elements and rules via expert consensus and possibly modifying them after empirical investigations
- develeping and testing the system's essential parts
- trying out the essential parts and their planned interaction with HörTech partners
- establishing and operating the network in the Weser-Ems region for testing purposes
- evaluating the trial run and developed quality network elements and deciding on further quality network
The end of this project should produce a sound concept derived via expert consensus and empirical data and the trial run will deliver practical experience and implementation recommendations for it. The quality network will improve the status of hearing aid research in Germany without neglecting cost efficiency and health economics.
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