Improving clinical tests for hearing aid fitting
A new Deafness Research UK project grant has been awarded to Professor Brian Moore of Cambridge University, to develop new tests of auditory performance that could be used in the clinic to greatly improve the selection and fitting of hearing aids.
[Project grant, 2007-2009]
A number of tests of auditory performance are currently used in the clinic by audiologists to diagnose hearing loss, quantify its severity, and provide guidelines for selecting and fitting hearing aids. While many tests that might be clinically useful have been developed in research laboratories, most have not found widespread use in clinical practice.
This can happen for several reasons:
- It may be technically difficult to generate the sounds required to perform the test.
- The test may be too time-consuming
- The test may require extensive practice to achieve stable and reliable results.
This project aims to develop and evaluate several tests that would provide useful diagnostic information and would be simple and quick enough to use in clinical practice.
All tests will run on a personal computer, so implementation in the clinic will be straightforward. The tests will include a new test for diagnosis of dead regions in the cochlea (these are regions with very few or no functioning inner hair cells).
Overall this study will greatly enhance the selection and fitting of hearing aids and improve the performance and effectiveness of hearing aids for the millions of users in the UK.
