Mining Publication: Contemporary Technology for Hearing Conservation Audiometric Monitoring

• Audiograms
• Hearing loss

If you are now conducting audiometric tests, you may have become so comfortable with your current equipment and recordkeeping system that it might seem like "this is the way things are supposed to be." However, could it be possible that one day your management might notify you that it's time to replace the audiometer, due to age or condition (or maybe due to an increase in your workload)? If that happens, where would you turn, and what criteria would you use, to shop for replacement instrumentation and database technology? The purpose of this article is to help you recognize some criteria of features currently available in audiometric equipment and audiometric database management software. Perhaps this information might help you plan for ways to enhance your programs efficiency and effectiveness (provided that budgetary constraints aren't exceeded). Even if you don't think that you're currently "shopping" for such technology, you may find it worthwhile to consider what's changed (and what has not changed) in this element of hearing loss prevention.