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"Previously it was helping us from an efficiency point. Now it's really helping us deliver better care." — Dr. Sharad Govil, CEO of Amazing Hearing and Chief Audiologist
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Amazing Hearing runs seven clinics across Singapore, providing private hearing care from ear wax removal through to cochlear implant support. Sharad Govil is an audiologist and the practice's business owner, with 25 years in hearing healthcare.
We spoke to Dr. Sharad, along with Ivy Ng, Senior Hearing Aid Specialist, and Zu Xuan Lee, Senior Audiologist.
Dr. Sharad wears several hats. Running seven clinics and sitting in meetings on top of seeing patients meant notes waited.
"It would take me time to put down the notes, and sometimes I may forget some of the key points because I will say I'll come tomorrow and do the notes." — Dr. Sharad Govil
He'd tried voice notes. They didn't hold up.
"When we have a very packed clinic with back-to-back patients, it's not so easy to recall all the important information when we are doing our note-taking." — Zu Xuan Lee
Audiology sessions with hearing aid users can run to two and a half hours. On a packed day the notes for all of them had to go somewhere, and where they went was overtime after the clinic closed.
The same pressure showed up around clinical questions. A difficult question from a patient meant working through textbooks or searching online, then filtering what came back.
"Of course we still have to filter the information whether it is reliable or trustworthy, and it takes quite a bit of time to consult all these different sources of information." — Zu Xuan Lee
Amazing Hearing was using Heidi before Heidi had a team on the ground in Asia. The clinicians took to it quickly.
"What I really like about Heidi is the evidence section. It brings us really good evidence that makes us better clinicians, especially in communicating to the patient. Heidi has done a very good job of keeping the clinical integrity of that information." — Dr. Sharad Govil
He draws a direct contrast with putting the same question to a general AI chatbot. The results come back different, and in a clinical conversation that difference decides whether you can use the answer.
Zu Xuan reaches for Heidi Evidence on the cases without an obvious path.
"There are some cases where we don't really know how to manage. Heidi generates quite a bit of research evidence. It gives us some idea, or some path to think about, how we can solve certain problems that patients are encountering." — Zu Xuan Lee
He also uses it between patients as a way to keep current, treating it as a source to check against rather than a substitute for his own judgement.
Sharad didn't expect the template library to be one of the bigger wins. Heidi started generating documents the practice had never produced, including handouts patients take home.
"What I didn't realise is the huge amount of templates that it has. Some of the things that we say in counselling, if you can back that up with a printed handout they can take home, that has been a really unexpected benefit." — Dr. Sharad Govil
Ivy drafts a message in Heidi after every appointment, covering what was done and what the patient needs to do next. It used to mean moving between a chatbot and the practice's CRM.
"Previously what I do is that I usually use an AI chatbot, but now I don't need to go in, go out, cut and paste. I just do everything in Heidi." — Ivy Ng
"With Heidi, probably about one to two minutes. At least 50% shortened." — Zu Xuan Lee
Notes that took Zu Xuan 5 to 10 minutes per case now take 1 to 2. Key information also lifts straight out of Heidi into the practice's letter and report templates, rather than being written from scratch.
Dr. Sharad says the detail now runs past what he'd have written himself, including things he wouldn't have thought to record.
"They pick up on things or note down things that I would probably not enter, but is important to know. So when I have someone else who's seeing a patient after me, he can see those notes and he feels that, okay, it's covered very well." — Dr. Sharad Govil
Heidi has become the assumption rather than the addition.
"It gets very frustrating because we're so dependent on it." — Dr. Sharad Govil
"Heidi helps me with notes to formulate a follow-up message where I find patients respond better and come back to clinic for their hearing aid fitting." — Sharad Govil
Ivy sends one after every appointment. Roughly half of patients reply. The message also documents what was communicated and reminds the patient what they need to do next.
That matters most after a fitting.
"After fitting, the appointment is usually one hour. If it's a first-time user, the customer may not be able to absorb everything. So this post-session message really helps them in terms of what they need to do after that." — Ivy Ng
Amazing Hearing wants Heidi connected more deeply to the systems it already runs on, SleekFlow for customer messaging and Auditdata as its EMR. The ask is specific. Ivy wants the post-session message to reach the patient on a button press rather than a copy and paste, and appointment scheduling to flow through without being handled by hand.
Ivy sums up where the team has landed on AI in the clinic.
"AI is here to stay. So basically what we need to do is that we have to embrace it and make good use of it." — Ivy Ng
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