Using a Telehealth Medium for Objective Hearing Testing: Implications for Supporting Rural Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Programs

Abstract

Telepractice is commonly used in other health professions to dispense a large number of services. These services include diagnostics, rehabilitation, and counseling. Telepractice is increasingly available to practitioners serving rural areas and can be modified for many health applications. Yet telepractice is not widely used by audiologists. This is somewhat surprising because audiology seems poised to offer telepractice using both synchronous and asynchronous technology. Furthermore, telepractice may be particularly effective for enhancing a universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) program in rural areas. Specifically, rural communities often lack the proper personnel and program continuity to serve newborns with hearing loss effectively. Telepractice may be a method that can ameliorate these problems. Presently, Utah State University is evaluating the value of telepractice for UNHS services. Initial data obtained from this project are promising and support the validity of telepractice with infant hearing services. However, research with a much larger group of subjects will be required before telepractice can be used with confidence in a UNHS program.