User’s satisfaction by procuring hearing aids using hearingaidkart, a dedicated and ethical E-commerce tool: a case study

Abstract

The Internet has created both opportunities and threats that providers of all stripes must eventually confront to remain viable businesses in the new economy. Although business-to-business (B2B) innovations offer great hope in reducing costs and providing other efficiencies, electronically connecting with patients is a particularly challenging frontier where technical hurdles are generally exceeded by political, legal, workflow, and other barriers. This study introduces a proposition for the foundation of a business that will encourage the offer of dedicated e-commerce site (www.hearingaidkart.com) in India. A case with moderately severe Sensorineural Hearing loss procured binaural digital programmable hearing aids. Patient had received hearing aid trial by a qualified audiologist within 3 days of procurement and further verified at nearest centre approved by the kart within one week. International outcome inventory of hearing aids (IOI-HA) was used after hearing aid trial at home and verification process at clinic and found significant satisfaction quantitatively at p=0.05.