The Supply of Clinical Tympanometer including maintenance and support services

This requirement is for The Defence Audiology Services (DAS), Institute of Naval Medicine (INM), to replace and improve obsolete essential equipment. New equipment is required to replace aging and obsolete equipment (GSI 39 Screening Tympanometer - acquired 2009).

This piece of specialised equipment is used to assess middle ear function in accordance with NICE/British Society of Audiology clinical guidelines prior to further audiometry.

This equipment is used for every service person that is referred to Defence Audiology Services for 'Gold' standard audiometry in accordance with existing procedures and protocols, to ascertain middle ear function to assist with hearing loss differential diagnosis when there is doubt or significant change. This clinical testing can have a major impact on the occupational grading of every referred person.

Any replacement equipment would have to have appropriate standards/requirements as recommended by British Society of Audiology et al (BSA). that would meet current NICE/NHS standards, including the appropriate ANSI S3.39, BS EN 60645-5, IEC 60601-1 and ISO 389 or equivalence.

The equipment will be used in accordance with BSA procedures which can be accessed via the link below.

(https://www.thebsa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/OD104-35-Recommended-Procedure-Tympanometry-.pdf)

Standard requirements/functions for the Clinical Tympanometer would be:

1. Standalone system 2. Standard Manual/Automatic tympanometry 3. Tympanic peak pressure, ear canal volume, admittance. 4. Extended Pressure range (+200 to -600/800 daPa) 5. Ipsilateral and contralateral acoustic reflex testing 6. Eustachian tube function (ETF) testing (perforated and non-perforated) 7. Headphones/Inserts/Bone Conductor 8. At least dual frequency probe tones 226Hz and 678, 800 or 1,000 Hz 9. Reflex Decay 10. Reflex Latency