JK SPEECH and HEARING CENTRE Restoring Dreams through State-of-the-Art Hearing Aids
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Deafness is often a `silent disability’. It’s not noticed, not visible and not discussed, yet it’s a predicament growing in importance and prevalence. Like many others in different parts of the world, Mahesh Jain, a government employee who lives in the outskirts of Hyderabad suffered this silent disability even more silently, when he noticed a downfall in audition, and was completely detached from the world of sounds over a period of time. Right from certain pragmatic aspects at the workplace to the way he socialized and indulged in the family, Mahesh witnessed the world around him changing in a drastic way. He found it easier to withdraw himself from society, rather than displaying his disability through a conventional hearing aid, which would cost him a significant sum of money.
“However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at,” says Stephen Hawking – the exemplary legend who beat complete paralysis with technology and great fortitude.
Meeting Dr. Imad Khan (Founder) at JK Speech and Hearing Centre (JKSHC), Hyderabad was one such realizing moment for Mahesh, in terms of acquainting with the advancements in audiology – from Completely in Canal (CIC) hearing aids to the latest `In-visible in Canal (IIC) aids that doesn’t even leave a trace. Just like thousands of other patients who come out of JKSHC, Mahesh got back his good old days within merely a couple of weeks.
Setting New Benchmarks
“According to WHO, around 466 million people worldwide, including 34 million children have disabling hearing loss, and the number is estimated to grow to 900 million by 2050. The second largest population in the world, our country has an undeniable responsibility to ensure providing world-class audiology services and devices at affordable rates,” asserts Dr. Imad.
Well, he has set new benchmarks for this through JKSHC, offering world-class hearing treatments and counseling at affordable rates to patients with partial hearing loss, complete hearing loss and born deaf people under one roof through highly qualified and RCI approved audiologists. Moreover, while other providers restrict their radar to a maximum of 150 variances of hearing aids, JKSHC provides over 1200 varieties of high-end digitally programmable hearing aids that can be customized according to patient’s level of hearing loss, need, budget, size and much more. Best-known for its invisible hearing aid offerings that eradicate patients’ fear about societal acceptability and interactions, JKSHC thus far has cured more than 10,000 patients with hearing impairment; and today, those beneficiaries spread awareness among their acquaintances by conveying first-hand experience, and in turn help changing society’s perceptions about deafness and hearing aids.
No wonder this center, while being at the forefront of hearing issues, gathers most of its clients through referrals. Dr. Imad divulges, “Our motto is to make hearing aids accessible to all needy patients across the country regardless of social and financial hierarchies. Heavily leveraging on cutting-edge technologies, we change the way hearing aids make an impact in the lives of people, significantly reducing noise and making it extremely effective and affordable”.
Excelling in Technology and Patient Care
It’s an undeniable fact that the recently mushroomed `hearing aid providers’ are leaving behind the scientific approach to maximize the sales and revenue. Came into existence in 2007, JKSHC over the past decade has earned tremendous goodwill for its dedication towards high-end technology based speech and hearing health care, assuring its clients standard operating procedures, world-class patient care, and unmatched privileges at all ties. The center starts its proceedings through Pure Tone Audiometry, and in turn determines the patient’s hearing ability relative to normal adult hearing levels. If the patient suffers from hearing impairment, this test helps recognize the type, degree and exact spot of occurrence, and hence provides critical information to help decide between medical and surgical interventions. If the problem probes into the middle ear, JKSHC performs Impedance Audiometry and completely rules out the middle ear status and functioning, including pressure, compliance and ear-canal volume. Alongside tracing all these vital information, the center ascertains an empathetic approach towards its patients, providing them with counseling and comprehensive briefing about the post procedures, available options and devices. Additionally, by banking on ENT specialists, JKSHC concretes the reliability of diagnostics and treatment, and thus enhances the predict-ability of implant’s outcome. Once the diagnosis is accomplished, the choice of hearing aids is an extensive process in JKSHC, including rigorous pre-fitting check-up and considering patient’s lifestyle profile, while the shape is often left to the patients to decide based on their comfort. In-deed, to provide a highly personalized and ideally fitting ear mold, the center makes an impression of the empty parts of patient’s outer ear and ear-canal using a quick drying (usually) silicone impression material. When it comes to the technology, JKSHC is one among the finest providers in the country, offering all the latest technologies in the segment right from regular Behind the Ear (BTE) hearing aids and Receiver in Canal (RIC) to the invisible technologies such as In the Canal (ITC), CIC and IIC. Neha Sharma, one of its clients testifies, “After testing and suggestions at three hearing clinics, I preferred JKSHC for hearing aid and speech therapy, in virtue of their hearing aid technology propositions”. Even post the implant, JKSHC, which lives on its vision of customer satisfaction, only tightens its commitments towards patients, performing regular checkups, listening to all their concerns and suggesting what’s best for them. It in fact goes an extra mile forward to ensure patients comfort, offering all the predominant hearing aid accessories such as Batteries, De-humidifier, Wax Protector and many more under the same shade.
En Route to the Future with a Much Bigger Mission
Above all, sometimes it takes more than audiology services to bring back people to normal lives. Focused on Receptive and Expressive Language, JKSHC also offers dedicated Speech Therapy to help both children and adults to recover themselves from various predicaments that warrant speech therapy ranging from Cochlear Implant Rehabilitation to Stammering, Autism and many more. “In simple words, we build the ability to understand spoken words and use words to express oneself,” adds Dr. Imad, who over the years has won several awards, including Audiologist of the Year – 2016, Hyderabad, and `Vaidyaratna’ award (today, he is often known in the locality as `Vaidyaratna Imad Khan’) from a reputed local organization in Hyderabad.
Dr. Imad’s efforts are however not limited to any local turf. He opines, “Many other countries have mandated the hearing test for newborns to allow them growing with hearing ability which in turn saves them from being dumb, while our country still serves a toddling age in the segment”. By co-funding Telangana state’s Audiologists Association and working as its General Secretary who ceaselessly acquaints the Ministry with the need of awareness among hearing impaired people, Dr. Imad is well directed on his mission to better country’s Audiology Services sector. Growing at a pace of up to 45 percent and having set its PAN India expansion blue-prints, JKSHC while continuously making hearing solutions simple and better will play an instrumental role in the process.
-Article put together by Sujith Vasudevan, for the Silicon India HealthCare Magazine.
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