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Apollo Spectra Hospitals, part of Apollo Health and Lifestyle Ltd. (AHLL), one of the largest players in the healthcare segment, for the first time has partnered with Pune based hearing health care provider Quadio Labs for their maiden telemedicine services.
Together they have introduced net audiometry services at Apollo Spectra Hospitals located in Mumbai at Tardeo and Chembur.
Through this service, patients can walk into the mentioned Apollo Spectra Hospitals or avail audiometry services via Quadio’s audiologist over the internet. Apollo Spectra Hospitals shares a similar vision as Quadio Labs and aims to provide improved access for hearing care through innovative technological solutions like net audiometry.
Net audiometry empowers audiologists to break the physical barriers of a brick and mortar hearing clinic and reach patients across geographies to conduct audiometry test for hearing impaired individuals. In a country of over 1.2 billion, hearing loss affects over 10 per cent of the population and is the second most debilitating disability in India.
With less than 2000 practicing audiologists in India, Quadio’s solution of net audiometry aims to reduce the distance between hearing impaired individuals and audiologists. As part of this partnership, Apollo Spectra Hospitals will also be reaching to institutions like schools, traffic policemen, bus drivers etc via net audiometry to help detect any cases of congenital or other adult hearing loss and increase awareness.
Speaking about the association with Apollo Spectra Hospitals, Neeraj Dotel, CEO, Quadio Labs said, “We are excited about our association with Apollo Spectra Hospitals for net audiometry services. This is a big step for telemedicine and we hope this partnership helps in improving the hearing care facilities for hearing impaired individuals across the country. I am happy to let you know that we will be expanding our net audiometry services to other smaller cities with the support of a reliable partner like Apollo Spectra Hospitals”
An internet connection is established between the patient location and remote audiologist. The hearing test is performed over the internet using Quadio’s Quadiometer by the audiologist. Post the test, a report is generated and a hard copy of the report can be printed by the patient at his location. A counsel on the report and recommended treatment is then discussed via video conferencing.
Anubhav Prashant, regional business head, Apollo Spectra Hospitals said, “Access to hearing assessment has been a major concern and need for audiologic services is significant worldwide and especially in India. Apollo Spectra’s evolution is guided by a ‘patient-centric’ approach, in line with this philosophy we have come together to work closely and bring tele-audiometry to communities who did not have access to the services. Through this association, we aim to reach out to both children and adults. We aim to screen more than 15000 people over the period of six months as a part of this initiative”.
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