As Ireland’s health service rolls out newborn hearing-screening services in its HSE South region, some valuable lessons can be learned from the state of California.
In rural areas, a tele-audiology service enables families to follow up in the event that a newborn baby’s hearing test results give any concern. A major benefit is that newborns and families save time and money by not traveling to appointments.
Study: New TeleAudiology Program in Northern California
This study shows how hearing-test processes are re-worked for remote assessment, the audiologists and IT team are trained to provide parent and technical support, and information is shared among initiatives. The goal is to identify babies by three months of age and to lead into hearing-device use and early intervention, with parent satisfaction a priority.
Further Reading
- Newborn Hearing Tests In Waterford And Wexford
- How The HSE Can Use Telepractice To Cut Costs
- Ireland’s First Virtual Hospital Clinic Logs On
- Telepractice For Low-Cost Language Teaching
