School entry level tele-hearing screening in a town in South India - Lessons learnt

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• 作者：Saleth D Monica^a ; Vidya Ramkumar^a ; ^{vidya.ramkumar@sriramachandra.edu.in} ; Mark Krumm^b ; Nitya Raman^a ; Roopa Nagarajan^a ; Lakshmi Venkatesh^a
• 关键词：Telehealth ; School screening ; Hearing ; India
• 刊名：International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：January 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：92
• 期：Complete
• 页码：130-135
• 全文大小：662 K
• 卷排序：92

文摘

School screening is warranted in developing countries that do not have newborn hearing screening as schools provide access to a large number of young children between 3 and 5 years of age. Due to scarcity of technical manpower and equipment, hearing screening programs are not often conducted in developing countries. In these circumstances, telehealth services appear to be a reasonable solution. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of school hearing screening using telehealth technology operated by a practitioner located 400 kms away at a distant hospital.MethodThirty one children received hearing screening procedures in their school. Each child was screened for both in-person and telehealth conditions to assess screening results. Remote computing software was employed for the telehealth condition in order for the practitioner to remotely operate an audiometer, DPOAE system and a video otoscope interfaced to a personal computer at the school site.Teamviewer version 10 was used to provide encrypted videoconferencing and synchronous hearing screening services between the hospital and school sites. All screening was conducted using a mobile phone hotspot or dongle device based internet connection to insure reliable connectivity.ResultsThe outcome revealed no significant difference between PTA and DPOAE performed in-person and tele-hearing screening methods. Concurrence of greater than 87% was achieved between in-person and tele-video-otoscopy. Strengths and challenges were documented for tele-hearing screening in three different dimensions: technical issues, child related and school related. Understanding these challenges may provide more effective tele-audiology services.DiscussionThe results of the study indicate synchronous hearing screening services can be provided in a school setting using mobile hotspot or dongle connectivity in locations where Internet bandwidth is otherwise restricted.