Internet Application to Tele-Audiology—“Nothin’ but Net”

Abstract

The Telehealth program at East Carolina University has developed a system for real-time assessment of auditory thresholds using computer driven control of a remote audiometer via the Internet. The present study used 45 adult participants in a double-blind study of 2 different systems: a conventional audiometer and an audiometer operated remotely via the Internet. The audiometric thresholds assessed by these 2 systems varied by no more than 1.3 dB for air conduction and 1.2 dB for bone conduction. The results demonstrated the feasibility of this new "telehearing" audiometric system. With the rapid development of Internet-based applications, telehealth has the potential to provide important healthcare coverage for rural areas where specialized audiological services are lacking.

Intercontinental hearing assessment – a study in tele-audiology

“…[6][7][8][9] The first studies were conducted in the USA by Givens and colleagues. [6,7] The mean threshold differences between the remote and conventional test procedures employed by these authors varied between 0.0 and 1.3 dB across frequencies (250 to 8000 Hz) compared to differences of between -1 and 0.1 dB across frequencies (125 to 8000 Hz) in the current study. In another report by Choi and colleagues [8] the remote versus conventional pure tone hearing thresholds varied by less than 5 dB in 89% of threshold comparisons compared to 96% in the present study.…”

“…[5] Initial reports of pure tone audiometry conducted via telemedicine have revealed promising results, which indicate essentially equivalent findings when compared to conventional face-toface testing. [6][7][8][9] However, the initial studies have been limited in the distance at which the remote testing was conducted (between 1 and 1100 km). Cross-continent or transatlantic telemedicine hearing assessments have not been reported.…”

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).…”

Teleaudiometria como método de triagem em escolares

“…Nas aplicações descritas acima (Givens et al, 2003;Givens e Elangovan, 2003;Wesendahl, 2003;Campos e Ferrari, 2012 relataram também que a maior barreira encontrada para a aceitação da teleaudiologia era a falta do contato "cara a cara".…”

“…Northern (2012) Em relação à teleaudiometria, numerosos autores (Givens e Elangovan, 2003;Givens et al, 2003;Choi et al, 2007;Lancaster et al, 2008;Swanepoel et al, 2010b;Swanepoel et al, 2010d) já demonstraram a possibilidade de controlar um audiômetro remotamente obtendo resultados comparáveis à avaliação presencial (Fabry, 2010) e, embora estes estudos tenham sido realizados em adultos, os dados mostraram semelhanças nos achados da teleaudiometria e da audiometria convencional.…”