Experience Manager
The Experience Manager tools provide a method to manually (Experience
Level) or automatically (Auto Experience Manager) transition
a new, inexperienced hearing aid patient from initial, spontaneously accepted
gain settings to the final, desired, target gain settings. Experience
Level is available for all products
except Xino Classic,
Zōn, and Destiny,
and Auto Experience Manager is only available for select products.
Experience Manager can be initiated per hearing aid and is automatically
enabled in all active memories. In addition, Auto Experience Manager and
Self
Learning cannot be enabled at the same time. If Self Learning is enabled,
Auto Experience Manager cannot be enabled until Self Learning is disabled.
However, Experience Level and Self Learning can be enabled at the same
time.
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,
4/Power (select products only), or T/Transition 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 in
order 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 which
match the prescriptive target for the selected fitting formula. Experience Level 4/Power is for
patients that prefer higher gain than predicted based on audiometric
thresholds. Experience Level T/Transition
is designed for patients transitioning to Starkey
hearing aids from other hearing aid
technology. Movement between these levels can be manually controlled
at subsequent fitting sessions. In addition, if Experience Level
1, 2, or 4 is selected, 
,
,
or 
icons display in the upper left hand corner of most fitting graphs
indicating the level. A tool tip 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
Experience ManagerAuto
Experience Manager
The Auto Experience Manager feature can be configured to start at
Experience Level 1/Novice or 2/Familiar settings and automatically
transitions to Level 3/Experienced setting gradually over the programmed
duration. For
Picasso, Muse iQ, SoundLens Synergy
iQ, Muse, or SoundLens Synergy
products, 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%, and Level 3/Experienced at 100%.
There are 3 states of Auto Experience Manager: Setup, In Progress,
and Complete. Setup occurs
when Auto Experience Manager is initialized and moves into In
Progress once the hearing aid is rebooted and usage time is
logged. Auto Experience Manager 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 both 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 Manager's
final gain settings display on the fitting graph represented
as dotted lines rather than the fitting formula's targets. In addition,
icons display in the upper left hand corner of most fitting graphs
indicating that Auto Experience Manager is enabled and provide a visual
representation of the progress. A tool tip referencing the state of
Auto Experience Manager displays when pointing to an icon.
If fitting binaurally and Auto Experience Manager 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 Manager progress can be manually
synced between devices based on either the right or left aid's settings.
If any Best Fit option is selected while Auto Experience Manager
is enabled, a message that Auto Experience Manager will be disabled
displays. Best Fit can be cancelled to prevent disabling Auto Experience
Manager.
For CROS/BiCROS devices, this feature is only available in 2.4 GHz
products.
- Connect and select the desired hearing aid(s) to
configure via Get Started.
- Click QuickFit.
- Click Experience Manager from
the Left Navigation Menu or click Experience
Level and either the Experience Manager screen or Experience
Level pop-up window displays.
| Note: These
options are only available if the hearing aid connected
supports one of these features. If the patient is
less than 18 years of age, these features are not available. |
- Inspire automatically defaults to a binaural
view if applicable. To configure only the right or left hearing
aid, click 
or 
.
| Note: If
fitting CROS/BiCROS devices, only the receiver aid can
be configured, therefore, the side cannot be selected. |
- Click
,
, 
, 
, or
from the Experience
Manager screen or click on the radio button from the Experience
Level pop-up window to use Experience Manager at a Transitional, Novice,
Familiar, or Experienced level respectively. To enable Auto Experience
Manager, see step 7.
| Note: Experience
Level descriptions display in a tool tip by pointing to
the Experience Level button on the Experience Manager
screen or the thumbnail fitting graph on
the Experience Level pop-up window. The gain
settings for the level selected displays on the fitting
graph and can be demonstrated live to the patient to ensure
the appropriate level is started. Repeat steps 1-6 to
transition the patient to the next or final level during
follow-up visits. If Experience Manager was enabled
via the Experience Level pop-up window, click OK
to save the changes or click Cancel
to discard the changes. |
| Tip: To
set the Experience Level back to the level derived from
the initial fit, click Apply
Initial Fit. If selected, a Best Fit All
Memories is applied to the initial fit level and if Auto
Experience Manager was enabled, it's automatically disabled. |
Check Automatic from
the Experience Manager screen to enable Auto Experience Manager
and then complete steps 8-10.
| Tip: If
Auto Experience Manager was enabled previously, it
can be disabled if the current state is In
Progress or Paused.
Disabling Auto Experience Manager 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 appears asking you to confirm disabling Auto
Experience Manager. Click OK
to disable or click Cancel
to cancel disabling Auto Experience Manager. |
| Note: To
pause or reset Auto Experience Manager that is currently
In Progress,
continue at step 11 or 13 respectively. To resume
Auto Experience Manager that is currently Paused,
continue at step 12. To sync Auto Experience Manager that
is currently In Progress,
Paused, or Complete, continue
at step 15. |
Click or
to start Auto Experience
Manager at a Novice or Familiar level respectively.
| Note: The
default is 1.
The gain settings for the level selected displays on the
fitting graph and can be demonstrated live to the patient
to ensure the appropriate level is started. |
Select the Total duration
from the drop down list.
| Note: The
default is 1 month.
If Level
was selected in step 8, the total duration selected will be
split between Levels 1 and 2. However, one day of use equates
to 10 hours, therefore, the total duration is based on the
patient’s actual daily usage. |
Click 
or
on the Inspire Toolbar to save the current session.
| Note: Turn
the hearing aid OFF then back ON after programming to
start Auto Experience Manager. |
Click Pause to suspend
Auto Experience Manager 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. |
Click Resume to continue
Auto Experience Manager from the state at which it was paused.
| Note: This
button is only available if the current state is Paused. |
Click Reset to reset
the connected hearing aid(s) back to the default settings, if desired,
and a dialog box appears 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 Manager's
elapsed time. In addition, all previous Auto Experience
Manager selections are returned to their defaults. |
Click OK to reset
the hearing aid(s) and restart Auto Experience Manager.
| Tip: Click
Cancel to cancel the reset. |
- Click Sync with Left
to change the Auto Experience Manager's progress on the right hearing
aid to match the left or click Sync with Right
to change the Auto Experience Manager's progress on the left hearing
aid to match the right, if the aids are out of sync.
| Note: These
buttons are only enabled during a binaural fitting in
which Auto Experience Manager is enabled in both ear sides
and there are differences in states or days remaining
when the total duration is the same. |
