J Am Acad Audiol
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Multicenter Study
Assessing Auditory Processing Abilities in Typically Developing School-Aged Children.
Large discrepancies exist in the literature regarding definition, diagnostic criteria, and appropriate assessment for auditory processing disorder (APD). Therefore, a battery of tests with normative data is needed. ⋯ The data collected in this study are appropriate for use in clinical diagnosis of APD. Use of a low-linguistically loaded core battery with the addition of more language-based tests, when language abilities are known, can provide a well-rounded picture of a child's auditory processing abilities. Screening for language, phonological processing, attention, and cognitive level can provide more information regarding a diagnosis of APD, determine appropriateness of the test battery for the individual child, and may assist with making recommendations or referrals. It is important to use a multidisciplinary approach in the diagnosis and treatment of APD due to the high likelihood of comorbidity with other language, learning, or attention deficits. Although children with other diagnoses may be tested for APD, it is important to establish previously made diagnoses before testing to aid in appropriate test selection and recommendations.
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Observational Study
Construct Validity of the Ecological Momentary Assessment in Audiology Research.
Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is a methodology involving repeated assessments/surveys to collect data describing respondents' current or very recent experiences and related contexts in their natural environments. The use of EMA in audiology research is growing. ⋯ Adults with hearing impairment were able to report their listening experiences, such as speech understanding, and characterize listening context in controlled environments with reasonable accuracy. The pattern of the data aggregated across multiple EMA surveys conducted in a wide range of uncontrolled real-world environment was consistent with the established knowledge in audiology. The two experiments suggested that, regarding speech understanding and related listening contexts, EMA reflects what it is intended to measure, supporting its construct validity in audiology research.
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Health care is being fundamentally changed by telemedicine. Telemedicine uses communication technologies in prevention, disease management, home health care, long-term (chronic) care, emergency medicine, and many other applications including audiology. Telemedicine is being adopted and integrated into the health care enterprise at an exponential rate and it is often difficult to keep up with all of these changes. Other key drivers such as the Affordable Care Act and other federal health care initiatives are pushing the adoption of telemedicine and catalyzing a flood of interest in telemedicine, telehealth, and m-Health. ⋯ Telemedicine is not a unique clinical specialty, but rather uses telecommunication technologies to reach out to patients to reduce barriers to care in underserved areas, improve patient care and accessibility to specialists, decrease professional isolation in rural areas, help medical practitioners expand their practice reach, and save patients from having to travel or be transported to receive high quality care.
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Cochlear implant (CI) recipients experience difficulty understanding speech in noise. Remote-microphone technology that improves the signal-to-noise ratio is recognized as an effective means to improve speech recognition in noise; however, there are no published studies evaluating the potential benefits of a wireless, remote-microphone, digital, audio-streaming accessory device (heretofore referred to as a remote-microphone accessory) designed to deliver audio signals directly to a CI sound processor. ⋯ Use of a remote-microphone accessory designed for a CI sound processor provides superior speech recognition in quiet and in noise when compared with performance obtained with the CI sound processor alone.