HearApp vs CIQOL

HearApp helps people with listening challenges learn to hear better. It's the perfect exercise plan for children and adults with hearing loss looking to achieve optimal hearing. Rooted in research and praised by users and audiologists alike, the app is fun, effective, affordable, and easy to use—at home or in clinic. How it works: HearApp takes you through a series of auditory exercises. You'll practice identifying and discriminating words and phrases in quiet and with background noise. A pre-test places you or your child at the appropriate practice level. Visual prompts, repetition, and other listening helpers provide support along the way. Your progress is saved automatically and used by HearApp to personalize your listening sessions. Our goal: HearApp is the result of several years of hearing research by BioSpeech, Inc., a biomedical research company located in Portland, Oregon, specializing in speech and hearing technology. The goal of HearApp is to build the listening skills of individuals with hearing loss, so that they can comprehend the language in their environment. With HearApp, individuals with hearing loss can begin to discriminate and identify the speech sounds in the spoken language around them. Background: In the United States, there are roughly 35 million individuals with some degree of hearing loss. Of these people, around 10 million have hearing aids and 67,000 have cochlear implants. Intensive auditory rehabilitation training is needed to fully realize the potential benefit of these devices and fully hear and understand speech. Face-to-face training with a specialist is expensive and not always accessible. HearApp aims to make auditory rehabilitation training more accessible for children and adults alike.

The Cochlear Implant Quality of Life (CIQOL) Digital Platform is a revolutionary tool designed to improve the care and outcomes of cochlear implant (CI) users. This innovative platform consists of two main components: the CIQOL App for patients and the CIQOL Clinical Web Portal for healthcare professionals. Built on a foundation of comprehensive research and developed using a User-Centered Design approach, this platform empowers both patients and clinicians by offering a streamlined, efficient way to monitor CI-related outcomes. The CIQOL Digital Platform is the result of years of research focused on understanding and improving the cochlear implant experience. It provides patients with easy-to-complete assessments before and after surgery, while clinicians benefit from automated scoring, data comparisons, and interpretation that can help guide clinical care. Key Features: 1. Pre-Cochlear Implant Evaluation: Patients complete key components of the evaluation process before arriving at the clinic, saving time and enhancing the assessment process. These include: - Patient intake section, gathering demographics and hearing history. - CIQOL outcome expectations assessment with automated scoring, compared to data from over 700 experienced CI users. - Baseline pre-CI CIQOL-35 Profile assessment with automated scoring and comparison to normative CIQOL data. 2. Post-Cochlear Implant Monitoring: The platform enables ongoing, automated monitoring at 1, 3, 6, and 12-month intervals post-surgery. Patients complete the CIQOL-35 Profile at these intervals, and results are: - Automatically compared to baseline scores. - Analyzed to determine whether improvements exceed the minimal detectable change threshold. - Linked to speech recognition scores for a holistic view of patient progress. 3. Automated Scoring and Interpretation: The platform eliminates manual calculations by automatically generating scores for both pre- and post-implant assessments. Clinicians receive detailed insights, including comparisons to normative data and interpretation of patient progress over time. 4. User-Friendly Interface: Patients and clinicians access the platform through either a mobile app or web-based portal. The intuitive design allows patients to track their progress and engage in their care, while clinicians can view comprehensive reports that aid in decision-making. 5. Evidence-Based Design: The platform was created following extensive interviews with cochlear implant audiologists, speech-language pathologists, surgeons, and CI users. This ensures that the content and features meet the needs of both patients and clinicians while overcoming common barriers to implementation in real-world clinical settings. By using the CIQOL Digital Platform, clinicians can more effectively track patient progress and make data-driven decisions, while patients enjoy a more streamlined and personalized care experience. Whether pre- or post-implant, the CIQOL Digital Platform provides the tools needed to enhance the quality of life for cochlear implant users, ensuring optimal care at every step of the journey.