Reducing Loss to Follow-Up with Tele-audiology Diagnostic Evaluations
| Autor: | David Lucatorta, Gerald Friedland, Dawn Deines, Hallie Morrow, Madan Dharmar, Candace Sadorra, Anne Simon, Deborah Nickell, Jennifer Sherwood, James P. Marcin |
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| Rok vydání: | 2015 |
| Předmět: |
medicine.medical_specialty
Telemedicine 020205 medical informatics business.industry Health Informatics Economic shortage 02 engineering and technology General Medicine Audiology medicine.disease Tele-audiology 03 medical and health sciences 0302 clinical medicine Health Information Management 0202 electrical engineering electronic engineering information engineering Medicine Newborn hearing screen Medical emergency 030223 otorhinolaryngology business |
| Zdroj: | Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association. 22(2) |
| ISSN: | 1556-3669 |
| Popis: | Infants who do not pass their newborn hearing screen require diagnostic follow-up visits but often face access barriers such as travel distance and shortage of pediatric audiologists. Telemedicine (tele-audiology) is a potential solution to provide diagnostic hearing evaluations for families of infants facing access barriers. We determined the feasibility and impact of a tele-audiology program that provided comprehensive diagnostic evaluations to a region with a high lost to follow-up rate among newborns who did not pass their newborn hearing screen.We evaluated the tele-audiology program using parent and provider surveys to determine the perception of quality and satisfaction of care. We also compared the lost to follow-up rate of the tele-audiology program with the loss to follow-up in the region before the implementation of the program.Twenty-two infants who did not pass their newborn hearing screen were referred to the tele-audiology program for diagnostic evaluation. Among these infants, 59.1% were diagnosed with some form of hearing loss. The mean quality score rated by both parents and providers on the telemedicine interaction was over 6.5 on a 7-point Likert scale. All parents rated the importance of tele-audiology as 7 (extremely important) for their family, whereas the provider rated the mean importance as 6.4 (95% confidence interval, 5.9, 6.9) on a 7-point Likert scale. Almost all parents actively participated or were engaged during history taking and counseling and were comfortable in discussing their child's hearing status remotely over telemedicine. All infants completed their diagnostic evaluation with no loss to follow-up compared with 22% loss to follow-up in the region before the implementation of the program.Tele-audiology is a feasible solution that reduces the loss to follow-up among infants who do not pass their newborn hearing screen and have access barriers to qualified audiologists for diagnostic evaluations. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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