Virtual Hearing Care Method Helping Children in Alaskan Towns

Digital health tools may help identify early indications of hearing loss and avoid additional damage, a new study highlights. Virtual care, combined with newly available over-the-counter hearing aids, could help people residing in rural areas and far from experts to maintain their hearing on point.

“We can really meet people where they are,” states Samantha Robler, study author and an audiologist at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Countless people worldwide suffer from hearing loss, making it harder for them to succeed in school, have fulfilling relationships, and acquire good jobs. Most of this hearing loss- the kind resulting from exposure to loud noises or infections- is avoidable.

However, the audiologists who can identify and assist in treating hearing loss are typically focused in major cities, making it difficult for individuals residing in rural areas to receive adequate treatment.

Just like the majority of specialized healthcare, professionals looked to telemedicine as a possible answer. Robler’s new paper, released in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, details different methods:

• Audiologists can examine individuals over a real-time video connection; 
• Tests can be taken, and later on, results sent to experts
•  patients can examine themselves.

Robler tested the method in Alaska, where children have a bigger chance of experiencing hearing loss than children in other parts of the United States. Children there have screening tests in schools to help identify problems regarding their hearing.

However, many don’t follow through and receive a complete battery of tests. Linking them to telehealth instead of an in-person primary care doctor accelerated that process, according to a clinical trial released this summer. “The results are pretty outstanding,” Robler states. “We spent a lot of time talking to community members and focus groups to contextualize the findings and how to scale this thing up.”

Improved access to hearing loss care

Robler is conducting more research on telemedicine and childhood hearing loss in Alaska and Appalachia, She added.

The push for improved access to hearing loss care via telehealth coincides with the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to make hearing aids available over the counter. “The aims of using telehealth technology are similar to what the FDA is shooting for in terms of making sure that people that need access to these services and technology solutions have them,” she states.

Having telehealth available around hearing care could provide people a simpler way to confirm if their new hearing aids are operating as intended, for instance. “It can help go through the tier of the healthcare system,” she says.” If the device doesn’t work, I’ll talk to a provider, but I don’t need to visit an office– I can just mark an appointment over my cellphone.”

Approximately one in four people internationally deal with hearing loss, and that number is assumed to keep climbing. So there’s a pushing need for better treatment, Robler states. “Do we have creative solutions to reach that many people?”

Originally published by: The Verge