2023 Marks a 20 Year Legacy
Looking back 20 years when Healthy Hearing & Balance Care first opened its doors on September 11, 2003 after a partnership went sour, I had no other option but start again. Audiology is my passion, and I could not see myself doing anything else. Employment was not an option after experiencing running my own independent hearing and balance clinic for nearly 10 years. I could not face going backwards having experienced all the benefits that an independently owned business brings, and work for someone else. I always enjoyed being my own boss!
The prospect of starting again was daunting as the changes happened very quickly and unexpectedly. To start again all by myself was also very exciting and everything fell into place with little effort. Like the old saying “it was meant to be.” I found the clinic’s location without even looking for it. It was Peter Bosloper, an engineer who used to fix audiological equipment, who mentioned that someone was selling a tympanometer in Bondi Junction. Recycling has always been my moto and if I was to start a new clinic, I would need lots of equipment. A second hand tympanometer seemed like a good start. As it turned out the seller was not only getting rid of this piece of machinery but in fact packing up his short-lived hearing aid practice in Bondi Junction and moving to Queensland. He even had a large soundproof booth which he was not looking forward to removing from the 12th floor where the clinic is located. I immediately made an offer for the booth, and it was there and then that Healthy Hearing & Balance Care was born. I called my husband and asked him to register my new business name.
My insider knowledge of the industry was instrumental in contacting the right people to help me. My passion for diagnostic audiology ensured that the clinic was set up with every piece of equipment necessary to perform all audiological procedures, from extended high frequency audiometry for tinnitus assessment, evoked response equipment for diagnostic tests such as ABR (auditory evoked responses) to diagnose acoustic neuromas and other retro-cochlear pathologies, electrocochleography for Meniere’s disease, VEMPS (vestibular evoked myogenic potentials) to test for dizziness and vertigo caused by otolith dyisfunction, free-field Auditory Evoked Cortical responses to verify cochlear implants and hearing aid outcomes, to infra-red googles and a caloric irrigator to perform VNG and Calorics for the differential diagnosis of vertigo and dizziness.
The support I received from all the Australian suppliers of audiological equipment, hearing aids and cochlear implants was overwhelming. In no time the clinic was fully equipped to program all hearing aids, bone anchored hearing aids (BAHA) and cochlear implants available in Australia.
At that time, the novel Neuromonics tinnitus treatment developed by Australian Audiologist Dr Paul Davis was going through its final clinical trials and I was hired as a consultant to help with the development of their clinical protocols. Healthy Hearing & Balance Care was the first Audiology Clinic to provide the Neuromonics Tinnitus Treatment in Sydney.
When I started the clinic I was 1 year into my PhD studies at Macquarie Uni on the topic of Hearing Aids for Meniere’s disease which I only completed 7 years later, juggling study and work. Many of the patients I still see today at Healthy Hearing & Balance Care were subjects in this study as all the research data was collected at the clinic. Clinical research has been ongoing throughout this 20 years. In fact, to date every new patient who comes to HHBC is invited to sign a consent form to have their de-identified clinical records utilised for research purposes. Indeed, several scientific papers were published in peer reviewed journals and presented at national and international conferences derived from our patients’ clinical records.
The clinic started as an one man show with the help of my wonderful husband Peter and Francine a young receptionist from Melbourne. After Francine went back home came Amy and then Eleanor who left us for motherhood followed by Angelica and now Juliani our practice manager who is about to qualify for long service leave! Hopefully part-timer Melanie, the friendly voice behind the phone will step in while Juliani is away.
Back to 2003, the clinic rapidly grew to require another audiologist to help me cope with patients’ demand. Lovely Erica came all the way from Brazil to fill that void and was instrumental in organising clinical protocols specially for our paediatric patients who needed hearing tests with VROAs and auditory processing assessments. I was very privileged to have encountered many dedicated young audiologists to work at the clinic over the years as well as supervising audiology uni students from different states. I consider myself very fortunate to have mentored very talented and passionate audiologists like Monique, Kristan, Karina, Kate, Danielle, Rebecca, Fadwa and more recently Barbara. All and each one of them has left a positive mark at the clinic. The last 20 years have no doubt been very rewarding and I feel very proud to call Healthy Hearing & Balance Care my own. Although I intend to continue working for a few more years to come, it is unlikely that I will be around to celebrate the next 20 years but I sincerely hope that the clinic will continue to provide excellent services to all the loyal patients and their families who rely on our valuable services to maintain their hearing and balance health.
Dr Celene McNeill