Mobile hearing care delivered by community health workers
Mobile technologies for delivering hearing care through community health workers
This project uses smartphones and trained community health workers to give fast, affordable hearing checks and hearing-aid fitting for people in low-resource communities, including children.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Cincinnati Childrens Hosp Med Ctr NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Cincinnati, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11187195 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
You would get a quick hearing check using a smartphone app and a community health worker who can also take a short ear video and test speech-in-noise. If you need hearing aids, the same smartphone system can program them so you and your family can notice better communication in about fifteen minutes. After the fitting, you would receive follow-up support and troubleshooting through mobile messaging and contact with your community health worker. The work is being tested in clinics in Cincinnati, Ohio and in low-income communities in South Africa to make sure the approach works in real-life settings.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Ideal participants are people (including children) who suspect they have hearing loss and live in the program areas or similar low-resource communities and are willing to work with a community health worker.
Not a fit: People who need specialist medical ear surgery or who live outside the trial locations are unlikely to directly benefit from this project.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could make high-quality, low-cost hearing testing and hearing-aid fitting widely available to underserved communities, improving everyday communication and quality of life.
How similar studies have performed: Smartphone hearing screening and community-delivered hearing programs have shown promise in past work, but full end-to-end mHealth fitting and long-term support is still relatively new.
Where this research is happening
Cincinnati, United States
- Cincinnati Childrens Hosp Med Ctr — Cincinnati, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Nagaraj, Naveen K — Cincinnati Childrens Hosp Med Ctr
- Study coordinator: Nagaraj, Naveen K
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.