Vision 2020: Tele-health in Audiology: Next Steps

By Amanda Farah Cox

A virtual meeting was held for the second phase of the Tele-health in Audiology work stream of our Vision 2020 process. In the first meeting, participants discussed the objectives, potentials, and challenges of tele-audiology. In the second virtual meeting, participants discussed ideas for how tele-audiology could be used, shared existing examples of tele-health in practice, and discussed how to deal with both high and low tech solutions.

Several participants in the meeting said that most of the questions they receive in the clinic have to do with hearing aid maintenance, saying that even cleaning hearing aids is a stumbling block for many users. With this in mind, solutions were discussed such as instructional videos on how to clean hearing aids and push notifications to tablet and mobile devices that will remind patients about hearing aid maintenance.

To develop a method, participants were asked to consider not only what is currently being done in research and in clinics in tele-health and audiology, but also to consider what solutions already exist in other areas. Some hearing aid companies are already using reminder notifications, while the South Africa-based Hello Doctor app allows users to submit questions via their mobile device and get calls back from doctors in their area. While services such as Hello Doctor go a long way towards serving a large part of the community, there are still many challenges to address in tele-health, including how to keep the clinician-patient relationship personable.

Also discussed was the potential to use tele-health for rehabilitation, which often does not get the in-clinic attention necessary to be effective.

We are continuing with the Tele-health work stream in January. To learn more about Tele-health and the Hearing Care Manager of the Future, click on our Vision 2020 tag.