My sister was a teacher for children with hearing loss in a small village called Vairag (Dist. Solapur). As a kid, I got a chance to meet and interact with children with hearing loss. Their communication style always fascinated me. So, I decided to take a path and I became the first Audiologist and Speech therapist in my town.

In the last 10 years, I served in different hospitals in Pune and Mumbai. In 2021, I decided to start serving patients through a full-time private clinic. I put all my experience and learnings of the last 10 years into designing and operating the clinic. I saw main three challenges which need to be solved in the hearing health area.

Firstly,  wrong prescriptions for hearing aids for the patient. Patients were recommended mostly costly hearing aid to the patient.  Patients were not given choices. Hence, I designed the ‘Good- better-best model’. Here I recommended at least three choices of hearing aids. Secondly, the high costs of hearing aids were the issue. Though I cannot control the cost, we brought various offers and no-cost EMI options for patients. This made hearing aid purchases less burdensome. 

Thirdly and most importantly, nobody wants to talk to patients once the hearing aid purchase is done. The patient did not have any platform to share his usage experience and solve issues. I designed the ‘Hearing aid care program’ which was an active follow-up system from the clinic to make sure every patient is using hearing aids regularly. This was a huge success and patients appreciated that we are doing follow-ups as long as they have a hearing aid.