A Rural Community Tests Teleaudiology for Newborns
By Hearing Review - The Insider,Publication Date: January 5, 2011
Article describes a teleaudiology pilot program that enables pediatric audiologists to remotely follow up with rural families and their newborns who fail initial hearing screenings. Funded by a grant from the United States Health Resources and Services Administration Maternal and Child Health Bureau, the program involves a telemedicine arrangement between Mercy Medical Center in Redding, California and the University of California, Davis in Sacramento. Audiologists at UC Davis perform the hearing screening and make the diagnosis. An electroencephalogram technician (EEG) in Redding places electrodes on an infant’s head and earpieces in the ears. Then an audiologist controls the screening equipment remotely from Sacramento. Three tests are administered to determine whether a child does in fact have hearing loss and, if so, its source: auditory brainstem response (ABR), otoacoustic emissions (OAEs), and tympanometry. The program focuses primarily on infants living inland in the far northern counties in California, where Redding is located. Participation in the program is by referral from the state Hearing Coordination Center.
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Link to text: http://www.hearingreview.com/insider/2012-01-05_06.asp
