“It is important that hearing prevention becomes more and more fully part of everyone’s preventive routine and the general practitioner is certainly the right professional who can correctly direct their patients to the specialist.” Thus Fabrizio Alfieri, Amplifon Medical Marketing Director Italy, in sharing the awareness project on the need to facilitate visits for hearing loss, aimed at general practitioners, during the 108th Congress of the Sio (Italian Society of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery), held in Rome from 25 until May 28, at the La Nuvola Convention Center.
The project, developed by Amplifon, is aimed at activating a convection with otolaryngologists and audiologists in order to increase the number of specialist visits at a subsidized price to make early diagnosis of hearing loss on the population most at risk. The initiative is based on an awareness campaign aimed at general practitioners and, in a second phase, at the over 65 population thanks to the collaboration of general practitioners in the area. The project is sponsored by Simg (Italian Society of General Medicine and Primary Care) and Siaf (Italian Society of Audiology and Phoniatrics).
Hearing problems are generally underestimated. In our country, among the over 65s, hearing loss affects 1 in 3 people, but only 30% regularly carry out specific checks. After all, hearing loss or hearing loss, according to the World Health Organization, affects about 500 million people in the world, of which over 7 million in Italy alone, with an incidence of 12%. Yet, on average, about 7 years pass between becoming aware of the disorder and adopting an acoustic solution. Taking care of your hearing is important as it means taking care of yourself and your well-being. For this reason, Amplifon, by creating a point of contact between scientific societies, is committed to relating the various professional figures, general practitioners and otolaryngologists and audiologists. This collaboration constitutes a crucial starting point for raising awareness of hearing loss, guaranteeing greater possibilities for early diagnosis and therefore for the hearing well-being of patients.