New Tests for Remote Monitoring of Cochlear Implants v2.0
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Evaluation of Test battery for Remote Monitoring of Cochlear Implants
IRAS ID
204098
Contact name
Helen Cullington
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cochlear
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Cochlear implants provide access to sound for people with severe to profound deafness. Clinical management of people using cochlear implants involves programming, counselling, performance evaluation and habilitation. Standard practice requires frequent clinical visits in the first few years and then annually. In a typical follow up appointment a clinician ascertains if there are issues related to implant function, hearing performance or other issues, using telemetry tests, performance measurements, datalogs and patient feedback. Based on these evaluations clinical management is planned.
For the majority of people using cochlear implants the need for a follow up visit to the clinic may be unnecessary after the first few years after implantation as performance and device functionality remains stable. However, as there are no means currently to know this without a clinical visit, visits are conducted routinely for all patients to avoid missed issues. Clinical appointments incur costs in terms of time and money for recipients and in clinic resources.
The test battery in this study can be run by a patient or their parent/carer at home, although this project will evaluate the tests in the clinic before a planned appointment. The results are reviewed by a clinician. The test battery comprises telemetry tests, performance measurements, datalog measurements and a set of questions on sound quality and other aspects. These will be done on an iPad and using the commercially available Custom Sound software. In future the commercial implementation of the test battery will allow these tests to be done on the patient’s sound processor, with data transmission to the clinician via connection to an iPad. However this future development will not be evaluated in this study. It is hoped the results of the test battery will provide a guide to the clinician to determine if a recipient needs to attend clinic or not.
REC name
East of England - Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/EE/0177
Date of REC Opinion
27 May 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion