Experience

Experience provides a method to manually (Experience Level) or automatically (Auto Experience) transition a new, inexperienced hearing aid patient from initial, spontaneously accepted gain settings to the final, desired target gain settings. Experience can be initiated per hearing aid and is automatically enabled in all active programs.

 

Gain offsets are calculated as percentages of the insertion gain prescribed for a moderate (65 dB speech) input level. Experience Level 1/Novice is calculated at 75% of target gain values based on the patient's audiogram and the fitting formula selected, Level 2/Familiar is calculated at 85%, Level 3/Experienced at 100%, and Level 4/Power (select products only) at 110%.

 

Experience LevelExperience Level

 

Experience Level is active by default. The programmed Experience Level will display and can be changed by selecting the desired Experience Level button. Experience Levels 1/Novice, 2/Familiar, 3/Experienced, or 4/Power (select products only) can be selected. Experience Level 1/Novice is designed for inexperienced users of hearing aids and provides the greatest degree of gain reduction from the prescriptive target settings to allow the new user to adjust to amplification. Experience Level 2/Familiar is for patients familiar with wearing hearing aids but provides a slight gain reduction from prescriptive target settings. Experience Level 3/Experienced is for experienced hearing aid users and provides gain settings that match the prescriptive target for the selected fitting formula. Experience Level 4/Power is for patients who prefer higher gain than predicted based on audiometric thresholds. Movement between these levels can be manually controlled at subsequent fitting sessions. In addition, if Experience Level 1, 2, or 4 is selected, icons in the upper left hand corner of most fitting graphs indicate the level. A tooltip referencing the Experience Level displays when pointing to an icon.

 

If Apply default at Best Fit and Target Match is selected via Target Preferences, any Best Fit action will change the Experience Level to the default level selected in Preferences.

 

Auto ExperienceAuto Experience

 

The Auto Experience feature can be configured to start at Experience Level 1/Novice or 2/Familiar settings and gradually transition to Level 3/Experienced settings over the programmed duration.

 

There are 3 states of Auto Experience: Setup, In Progress, and Complete. Setup occurs when Auto Experience is initialized and moves into In Progress once the hearing aid is rebooted and usage time is logged. Auto Experience is Complete once the programmed duration time has elapsed and final gain settings have been attained. Adjustments made during any state except Complete will affect the current and final gain settings.

 

If Show Auto Experience Manager final settings when the feature is enabled is selected via Target Preferences, the Auto Experience's final gain settings display on the fitting graph represented as dotted lines rather than the fitting formula's targets. In addition, icons in the upper left hand corner of most fitting graphs indicate that Auto Experience is enabled and provide a visual representation of the progress. A tooltip referencing the state of Auto Experience displays when pointing to an icon.

 

If fitting binaurally and Auto Experience is enabled in both hearing devices, differences in states or days remaining may occur between aids when the programmed total duration is the same. If this occurs, the Auto Experience progress can be manually synced between devices based on the right or left aid settings.

 

If any Best Fit option is selected while Auto Experience is enabled, a message will appear that Auto Experience will be disabled. Best Fit can be cancelled to prevent disabling Auto Experience.

  1. Connect and select the desired hearing aid(s) to configure via Connect.
  2. Click Connect.
  3. Click Experience from the Left Navigation Menu.
  4. Pro Fit automatically defaults to a binaural view if applicable. To configure only the right or left hearing aid, click Select Right Only or Select Left Only.
    Note:  If fitting CROS/BiCROS devices, only the receiver aid can be configured; therefore, the side cannot be selected.
  5. Click , , , or  to use Experience at a Novice, Familiar, Experienced, or Power level, respectively. To enable Auto Experience, see step 6.
    Note:  Experience Level descriptions are displayed in a tooltip by pointing to the Experience Level button. The gain settings for the level selected are displayed on the fitting graph and can be demonstrated live to the patient to ensure the appropriate level is started. Repeat steps 1-5 to transition the patient to the next or final level during follow-up visits.

  6. Check Automatic to enable Auto Experience and then complete steps 7-9.

    Tip:  If Auto Experience was enabled previously, it could be disabled if the current state is In Progress or Paused. Disabling Auto Experience applies the current gain offsets to the final gain settings and automatically selects the experience level that closely resembles the current settings. To disable, uncheck Automatic, and a dialog box will appear asking you to confirm that you are disabling Auto Experience. Click OK to disable or click Cancel to cancel disabling Auto Experience.
    Note:  To pause or reset Auto Experience currently In Progress, continue at steps 10 or 12, respectively. To resume Auto Experience that is currently Paused, continue at step 11. To sync Auto Experience that is currently In Progress, Paused, or Complete, continue at step 14.

  7. Click  or to start Auto Experience at a Novice or Familiar level, respectively.

    Note:  The default is 1. The gain settings for the level selected are displayed on the fitting graph and can be demonstrated live to the patient to ensure the appropriate level is started.

  8. Select the Total duration from the drop-down list.

    Note:  The default is 1 month. If Level was selected in step 7, the total duration selected will be split between Levels 1 and 2. However, one day of use is 10 hours; therefore, the total duration is based on the patient’s daily usage.

  9. Click File from the Menu Bar and click Save to save the current session.

    Note:  Turn the hearing aid OFF and back ON after programming to start Auto Experience.

  10. Click Pause to suspend Auto Experience at its current state of progression, if desired.

    Note:  The Pause button changes to Resume. During suspension, the starting experience level and total duration cannot be changed, and the current state of progression is retained in subsequent fittings.

  11. Click Resume to continue Auto Experience from the state at which it was paused.

    Note:  This button is only available if the current state is Paused.

  12. Click Reset to reset the connected hearing aid(s) to their default settings, if desired. A dialog box will appear asking you to confirm the reset.

    Note:  Resetting returns the hearing aid(s) to the default settings, including any gain changes made during the Auto Experience's elapsed time. In addition, all previous Auto Experience selections are returned to their defaults.

  13. Click OK to reset the hearing aid(s) and restart Auto Experience.

    Tip:  Click Cancel to cancel the reset.
  14. Click Sync with Left to change the Auto Experience's progress on the right hearing aid to match the left, or click Sync with Right to change the Auto Experience's progress on the left hearing aid to match the right if the aids are out of sync.
    Note:  These buttons are only available during a binaural fitting in which Auto Experience is enabled on both ear sides, and there are differences in states or days remaining when the total duration is the same.

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