Telehealth has recently grown in popularity, and now it鈥檚 audiology鈥檚 turn to embrace its potential.
Rush is hosting the fifth International Meeting on Internet and Audiology, which will run from May 3- 6. The online conference will explore ways to use internet-based methods to improve health outcomes for audiology patients.
The meeting brings together more than 550 clinicians, researchers, and students from 30 countries. The four main themes of the meeting are patient-centered care and eHealth, social media and hearing care, online audiologic rehabilitation, and implementation of teleaudiology services.
The meeting chair, , is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences at Rush University. He wants to see the meeting consider the ways audiology can be more accessible and widespread for a wide range of people who can鈥檛 get hearing care in person.
鈥淥nline applications can help audiologists reach more patients and offer guidance so people feel empowered to get the help they need,鈥 he says. 鈥淏ut technology cannot replace human connection. 鈥淚t is there to help us maintain those connections we have with one another.鈥
The World Health Organization鈥檚 2021 report estimates that more than 1.5 billion people, nearly 20% of the world population, are currently experiencing some degree of hearing loss, with approximately 430 million expected to require treatment. Complicating the problem further is the dearth of audiology services in many places they are needed.
Providing services online may be one way to decrease the global burden of hearing loss and to reach individual patients. The good news is that in recent times during the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth has gained much wider adoption, and Shafiro now sees teleaudiology as a way to expand care for those with hearing loss.
Many people with hearing loss are in economically disadvantaged countries, Shafiro says, where teleaudiology could provide unprecedented access to care. Aging populations in wealthier countries could also benefit from remote online care. And there鈥檚 also immediate importance for the general public. According to a recent article in the Lancet referenced by Shafiro, untreated hearing loss in middle age is the largest modifiable risk factor for later dementia.
Shafiro believes this meeting will help build professional and research networks, and bring greater awareness of existing and developing teleaudiology practices to clinicians, who will be able to better assist their patients through internet-based treatment and monitoring.
鈥淥ne of the projects we've had in my lab is developing online tests for evaluating speech perception, speech comprehension, perception of environmental sounds, perception of music and auditory pattern processing,鈥 Shafiro says.
His lab鈥檚 work so far has been focused on people with cochlear implants, but he鈥檚 confident he can extend this model to other populations with hearing loss. It鈥檚 exactly the type of project relevant to this year鈥檚 meeting.
Other Rush clinicians, researchers and students will be presenting at this year鈥檚 meeting. , a clinical manager in the Department of Communication Disorders and Sciences, along with one of her students, Kristen Petrarca, has developed protocols for both in-person hearing aid fittings and online follow up. Worthington also heads up Rush鈥檚 SCOPE program (Student Community Outreach Program of Excellence) to distribute hearing aids to those in Chicago who need them. Their protocols will help people manage their own hearing care remotely.
Another SCOPE project, led by Rush faculty , and Kate Dunckley, PhD, and presented at the meeting by current audiology student Tara Waller is focused on developing online training modules to make hearing loss screening accessible to more people. It is expected that physician who complete the modules would be able to detect hearing loss earlier (and thus address it sooner), since often it鈥檚 a patient鈥檚 personal doctor who identifies hearing loss first.
The meeting will also expose Rush students to many recent innovations in teleaudiology and inform the development of audiology curricula.
鈥淗earing loss is such a widespread issue affecting so many people in the Rush community, in the U.S. and around the world,鈥 Shafiro says. 鈥淭he International Meeting on Internet and Audiology is critically important for helping teleaudiology go mainstream.鈥
