Assessment of remote hearing aid assistance Version 1.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Assessment of the usability and acceptability of remote assistance for hearing aid users
IRAS ID
263629
Contact name
Jane R Wild
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
NA, NA
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 0 days
Research summary
Despite hearing aids (HAs) being effective, two out of three people who would benefit from using HAs do not access them. For those who do obtain HAs, around 20% do not wear them regularly. Unmanaged hearing loss has substantial personal, societal and economic costs.
People often do not use their HAs because they continue to experience difficulties when listening to and understanding speech in noisy situations. Conventional HAs must be programmed and adjusted by a trained audiologist with specialist equipment and therefore provide limited user-control over the hearing aids functionality. New HA technologies now provide additional methods of adjusting hearing aids. Firstly, certain aspects of hearing aid programming can be adjusted by the person themselves using a HA-specific smartphone application (or app), and secondly, HA users can remotely contact their audiology department if they have problems with the sound quality from their HA and an audiologist can then re-programme the HA remotely without the HA user needing to attend the audiology department.
This study aims to explore the key factors involved in the delivery and usability of these new technologies when used by people within NHS-funded adult audiology services. The study will explore the benefits of these new technologies (specifically GN Resound’s Remote Assist service and accompanying BeMore smartphone app) in the real-world by patients and their communication partners (e.g. family members), and with audiologists, ensuring the project has direct relevance to both audiology services and patients.
The study will use a mixed-methods (i.e. quantitative and qualitative methodologies) approach and involve two phases:
Phase 1: Focus groups exploring personal perspectives on usability, acceptability and benefits of Remote Assist.
Phase 2: Survey to identify accessibility and acceptability for the concept of Remote Assist.REC name
Wales REC 5
REC reference
19/WA/0193
Date of REC Opinion
27 Jun 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion