Why Choose AHead?
AHead Simulations was founded to solve a training and education gap in hearing healthcare.
The line of CARL Products are a result of many years of development and validation to ensure our solutions are empowering educators and learners to be leaders of the industry.
All CARL products were developed to be approachable, universal, and trusted, by in depth validation studies, partnering with the best organizations in the world, and ensuring our solutions continue to evolve to meet the emerging needs of the industry.
Assisting you with your end-to-end clinical workflow
Solutions that have an impact
Validation Study #1: Face and Content Validity of a CARL Prototype
Koch RW, Moodie S, Folkeard P, Scollie S, Janeteas C, Agrawal SK, Ladak HM. Face and content validity of a probe tube placement training simulator. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology. 2019 Mar 1;30(3):227-34.
Validation Study #2: Skills Transference of a CARL Prototype
Koch RW, Saleh H, Folkeard P, Moodie S, Janeteas C, Agrawal SK, Ladak HM, Scollie S. Skill Transference of a Probe-Tube Placement Training Simulator. Journal of the American Academy of Audiology. 2020 Jan 1;31(1):40-9.
Validation Study #3: Normative Data of CARL for Real Ear Measurement
Paula Folkeard, Muneeb Alam, Robert Koch, Parvaneh Abbasalipour & Susan Scollie (2022) An evaluation of the CARL manikin for use in “patient-free” real ear measurement: consistency and comparison to normative data, International Journal of Audiology, DOI: 10.1080/14992027.2022.2048104
CARL is Making Waves
hear about it first hand
Overall, having access to a set of CARL Simulators has allowed me to overhaul my teaching, for the better. I am able to do a better job, more consistently, and set up experiential learning activities that have high face validity and that can be expected to transfer to clinical practice. At this point, I can safely say that I wouldn’t teach without CARL. He is a game changer.
Dr. Susan Scollie![]()
Director, National Centre for Audiology
I have been very impressed with the AHead team. If we have any questions or concerns, they get back to us immediately and talk us through what needs to be done.
These CARLs have helped us provide hands-on instruction and practice for our students, who have, in turn, reported feeling more confidence as they transition to working with patients. Implementing these simulation capabilities has really been a win-win situation for our program.
Dr. Cynthia Richburg![]()
Professor, AuD Program Coordinator, Wichita State University
“I came to rely on the use of CARL as an integral part of onboarding. Within a single session, it allowed the rapid evaluation of proficiency and comfort with verification and allowed me to determine if additional training was needed or coaching on the value and importance of its routine use.”
Andreas Seelisch![]()
Director of Audiology, Hearing Solutions
"The use of simulation in ongoing training of staff goes well beyond simply having an ear model. CARL is a combination of anatomically correct ears and head and torso that can be positioned just as a patient would be, allowing us to safely practice novel techniques in a way that eliminates the injury risk from practicing on patients or on each other. This allows an expert clinician to disseminate his or her knowledge to junior staff. This in turn gives the junior staff greater confidence, and gives the senior clinician greater bandwidth."
Brian Fligor![]()
Audiologist & Owner, Tobias & Battite
CARL has been a game-changer for our program. From hands-on learning labs to capstone projects to enhanced clinical skills, we use our CARL every semester in so many different ways. Our students appreciate the opportunity to see and do, while learning key concepts for becoming best practice audiologists. With CARL we practice: earmold impressions, earmold insertion/removal, cerumen management, transducer placement, hearing aid verification, otoscopy, RECD, SREM, pediatric fittings, and so much more. Every year we come up with more reasons to use CARL. He’s part of our Program Family!
Dr. Lauren Felton![]()
Clinical Education Coordinator and Lecturer, Washington University in St. Louis
CARL has played an essential role in the training of our AuD students at Montclair State University. CARL provides students a safe and stress-free opportunity to sharpen their clinical skills. For e.g., the first-year students learned firsthand how to properly place the probe microphone tube during real-ear measurements to verify hearing aids. In a risk-free environment, the first-year students made ear-mold impressions on adult, pediatric, and adult curvy anatomical-shaped ears. In the second year, students worked on fitting and verifying CROS and BICROS hearing aids, programming and verifying telecoil programs, and evaluating hearing aid streaming. Third-year students have incorporated CARL into several capstone projects verifying nontraditional devices, but the assistance CARL provided when a student assessed DM technology transparency was invaluable.
Dr. Maryrose McInerney![]()
Associate Professor, Montclair State University
CARL assists me during inventory of all of our hearing protection, he gets to demo them for the students so they know the right and wrong way to put them on and so they know what they need to return. CARL is also a great resource when I need a model to take pictures of new equipment that we have received, he never complains! We have used the CARL heads at a few events on campus to spread hearing awareness and the students utilize them in the classroom as well.
Teri Rorie![]()
Administrative Assistant, Audiology, A.T. Still University
CARL has streamlined our methods for teaching earmold impressions, probe mic measurements, hearing aid fittings, and other "on-ear" procedures. First-year students benefit from low-risk learning activities and second-year students benefit from high fidelity simulation experiences. Faculty support from the team at AHead Simulations includes a website with robust on-demand tools and real-time training personalized to our teaching needs. Our faculty highly recommend CARL products to anyone teaching future hearing healthcare providers.
Rebecca Krouse![]()
Program Director forHearing Instrument Science, Ozark Technical Community College
CARL has been an integral part of clinical training at the University of South Florida. USF AuD students use CARL in their every semester as they learn to hold the otoscope and as they continue learning how to take earmold impressions, perform probe mic measures, measure earmold tubing on a patient’s ears, and learn cerumen management techniques. Having CARL is a way for students to comfortably practice skills and allows during learning labs for instructors and students to not always have to serve as the “test” ears.
Dr. Devon Weist![]()
Hearing Clinic Director, Associate Professor of Instruction, University of South Florida
CARL has been a valuable addition to our program. The fact that students make their first steps practicing ear impression technique and real ear measurements on a manikin greatly increase their learning process and build their confidence before practicing on humans. Furthermore, it increases the opportunities for practicing by themselves since they do not need a partner.
Daniel Bois![]()
Program Coordinator and Instructor, Cégep de La Pocatière
We have been working with Carl for over a year now. This is very useful for our audiology students because it allows them to practice real-ear measurements, ear impressions and cerumen extraction independently and safely. We also use Carl during practical exams, which provides a standardized testing condition for all our students. Carl is a very valuable addition to our lab!
Dr. Mathieu Hotton![]()
Assistant Professor, Laval University
CARL has been an asset to student learning, especially during the pandemic when most instruction was remote. Students were able to come to the clinic and practice skills on CARL when they had limited access to patients. We have used CARL to practice otoscopy, REMs, earmold impressions, and transducer placement. I use CARL as the standardized patient for all practical exams and the Camera CARL allows me to observe students placing probe tubes to the proper depth during the assessment. We recently purchased a second CARL unit and I’m looking forward to trying more of the lesson plans available from the CARL Community.
Dr. Katherine Peitsch![]()
Assistant Clinical Professor, Towson University
