An Innovative Person-Centered Hearing Aid Education and Aural Rehab System

ABSTRACT The NIDCD and NIA have strongly encouraged research leading to “accessible and affordable hearing health care and improved outcomes” through new delivery systems in clinical settings. This is an especially significant problem for the rapidly growing 65+ population. Older adults are more prone to suboptimal hearing aid use and care because of their special learning needs, combined with insufficient time available for audiologists’ “after care” and the demonstrated inadequacy of hearing aid manufacturers’ instruction manuals. We have hypothesized that effective hearing aid education/training reinforcement and follow-up care via new, personalized, easy-to-use technology will ensure more successful outcomes. In Phase I, in response to this public health need, Healthcare Technologies and Methods (HTM) developed and pilot-tested a novel prototype product we named TELLYHealthTM. This innovative, personalized, patient- centered product engaged older patients with hearing loss and “connected them” with their audiologist. The 6-week pilot tests demonstrated the feasibility of TELLYHealthTM. On a 5-point Likert scale, subjects rated TELLYHealth‘s ease of use 4.75 and their hearing aid satisfaction 4.42. The Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit (APHAB) and the Hearing Handicap Inventory for the Elderly (HHIE) revealed a significantly improved hearing aid benefit and a reduced hearing handicap, respectively. In Phase II, HTM converted the prototype into a more cost-effective and scalable app-based TELLYHealthTM system that provided the additional functionality and educational content requested by patients and audiologists in Phase I. HTM also conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT) at two audiology practices that generated equally encouraging usability data along with efficacy data and valuable qualitative feedback. In this CRP grant, HTM proposes to leverage marketing, intellectual property, financing and software technical support to incorporate lessons learned from Phase II (feedback from audiologists and their patients) and to prepare the product for successful commercialization. Our goal is to form a strategic alliance with a well- established healthcare company that will include financing.