Evaluation of Remote Check: A Clinical Tool for Asynchronous Monitoring and Triage of Cochlear Implant Recipients.
Saji Maruthurkkara, Sasha Case, Riaan Rottier
PMID 34320523WHAT IT FOUND
Most cochlear implant recipients found the Remote Check app easy to use at home.
Self-administered hearing tests were reliable, but the aided threshold test took longer than in-clinic checks and yielded better results. It supports triaging patients but requires clinician oversight for interpretation.
Key findings
01Eighty-seven percent of participants rated the app as easy or very easy to use, though only 50% found taking implant site photos easy.
02Self-administered tests showed high test-retest reliability, with mean differences of 0.9 dB for aided thresholds and 1.49 dB for speech-in-noise scores within the same session.
03The self-administered aided threshold test took 8.2 minutes per ear on average, compared to 3.7 minutes for the clinician-driven audiogram.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study was conducted at a single center with a small sample size (32 participants), limiting generalizability. The self-administered aided threshold test took more than twice as long as the clinician-driven version, which may affect patient compliance. The Remote Check ATT produced significantly better (lower) thresholds than the clinician-driven audiogram, suggesting systematic differences that clinicians must understand before comparing to historical in-clinic data. Half of the participants found taking implant site photos difficult, indicating a need for a carer or assistant for this component.
Declared interests
The study was supported by Cochlear Ltd. Participants were recruited from Cochlear's database, and the app tested is a proprietary product of the funder.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume the remote aided threshold test is equivalent to the in-clinic audiogram. The remote test yielded thresholds 6.72 dB better on average and took longer to complete, so a 'normal' remote result may reflect the test's design rather than stable hearing, and it cannot be directly compared to previous in-clinic baselines without adjustment.