Interjudge Reliability and Validation of Telehealth Applications of the Hearing in Noise Test

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to validate administration of the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) via telehealth technology. Two experiments were conducted, each with 20 normal-hearing young male and female college students 18 to 30 years of age. In the first experiment, researchers at two separate on-campus locations (Logan, UT) administered the HINT using ViGO remote-control interactive software over a local area network. In the second experiment, the HINT was administered from a local site (Logan, UT) and from a remote site (Minot, ND) over the Internet using the same technology as described in the first experiment. Data from this study revealed that interjudge and intrasubject reliability at local and remote sites were high. These findings suggest that available technology can be used in administering the HINT at remote or underserved locations as effectively as if the testing were face to face.Learning Outcomes: As a result of this activity, participants will be able to define telehealth, explain the HINT protocol, and justify its use in testing underserved populations at a distance.Telehealth is defined as the provision of health care to consumers at a distant location using an electronic medium. 1,2 Advances in technology, particularly in the last decade, have greatly influenced the healthcare industry. These advances in technology were most obvious with the Internet, networking applications, and personal computer capabilities. In this environment, the field of audiology has witnessed substantial changes in technology as well. Programmable and digital amplification systems have become standard fare in most Audiology

A Systematic Review of Telehealth Applications in Audiology

“…A comparison of face-to-face evaluations to remote testing through the same local area network and a different, more remote Internet connection was reported for a group of 20 adults. 25 The means and standard deviation for each test condition from both test sites were within the normative data reported for HINT, except for one instance where the difference in means between tests sites was less than 1 dB, indicating the reliability of performing HINT via a telemedicine configuration. Three studies of video-otoscopy facilitated through telemedicine applications were included in the review, even though all examinations were conducted by physicians as opposed to audiologists.…”

Telehealth in audiology: The need and potential to reach underserved communities

“…Several options are available for conducting diagnostic pure tone and speech audiometry within the context of telehealth (Choi et al, 2007;Givens & Elangovan, 2003;Krumm, Ribera, & Klich, 2007;Ribera, 2005). Internet-based hearing tests have been proposed as a means of hearing testing although there are serious practical concerns such as calibration accuracy and lack of control on environmental noise levels (Bexelius et al, 2008).…”

Verificação da prótese auditiva realizada face a face e via teleconsulta: medidas repetidas

“…Uma das preocupações com relação à teleconsulta é a consistência e qualidade do envio das informações de um local ao outro. Estudos 15,30,31 relatam falhas no sinal de áudio e na transmissão dos dados do teste realizado à distância, em momentos de pico na rede, quando o tráfego na internet era intenso, fazendo com que a informação enviada pelo computador remoto não chegasse de maneira ótima no ambiente de ondas estacionárias geradas no mesmo. Em consequência, no caso das frequências baixas o tubo sonda posicionado em qualquer lugar do conduto irá medir, essencialmente, um nível de pressão sonora igual ao gerado próximo na membrana timpânica 4 .…”