Public health policy-making for hearing loss: stakeholders’ evaluation of a novel eHealth tool

Abstract Background Hearing loss (HL) affects 466 million people of all ages worldwide, with a rapidly increasing prevalence, and therefore requires appropriate public health policies. Multi-disciplinary approaches that make use of eHealth services can build the evidence to influence public policy. The European Union-funded project EVOTION developed a platform that is fed with real-time data from hearing aids, a smartphone, and additional clinical data and makes public health policy recommendations based on hypothetical public health policy-making models, a big data engine and decision support system. The present study aimed to evaluate this platform as a new tool to support policy-making for HL. Methods A total of 23 key stakeholders in the United Kingdom, Croatia, Bulgaria and Poland evaluated the platform according to the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats methodology. Results There was consensus that the platform, with its advanced technology as well as the amount and variety of data that it can collect, has huge potential to inform commissioning decisions, public health regulations and affect healthcare as a whole. To achieve this, several limitations and external risks need to be addressed and mitigated. Differences between countries highlighted that the EVOTION tool should be used and managed according to local constraints to maximise success. Conclusion Overall, the EVOTION platform can equip HL policy-makers with a novel data-driven tool that can support public health policy-making for HL in the future.

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Satisfação de usuários com aparelhos de amplificação sonora individual concedidos pelo Sistema Único de Saúde: revisão integrativa

Audiology - Communication Research ◽

10.1590/2317-6431-2020-2296 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 25 ◽

Author(s):

Rodrigo Oliveira da Fonsêca ◽

Monique Ramos Paschoal Dutra ◽

Maria Ângela Fernandes Ferreira

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Hearing Loss ◽

Health Policy ◽

Patient Satisfaction ◽

Health System ◽

Hearing Aids ◽

Public Health Policy ◽

Unified Health System

RESUMO Objetivo Identificar a satisfação de usuários com os aparelhos de amplificação sonora individual (AASI) concedidos pelo Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS). Estratégia de pesquisa Trata-se de uma revisão integrativa da literatura, realizada nas bases de dados LILACS, SciELO, PubMed e Scopus, empregando os descritores hearing loss, public health policy, Unified Health System, public health, patient satisfaction e hearing aids. Critérios de seleção Foram selecionados artigos publicados a partir de 2004, sem restrição quanto ao idioma, envolvendo usuários adaptados pelo SUS. Excluíram-se publicações repetidas, resenhas, artigos de opinião, editoriais, teses e dissertações. Resultados Foram localizados 1011 estudos, dos quais, 24 foram incluídos. As pesquisas veicularam-se a partir de 2007, com predomínio na região Sudeste, por meio de abordagens quantitativas e, em grande parte, com amostras limitadas, compreendendo adultos e idosos. Os questionários de autoavaliação foram os recursos utilizados para avaliar a satisfação. Conclusão A maioria dos usuários revelou elevada satisfação com os AASI concedidos pelo SUS.

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Clinical validation of a public health policy-making platform for hearing loss (EVOTION): protocol for a big data study

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2017-020978 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. e020978 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Giorgos Dritsakis ◽

Dimitris Kikidis ◽

Nina Koloutsou ◽

Louisa Murdin ◽

Athanasios Bibas ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Hearing Loss ◽

Big Data ◽

Health Policy ◽

Data Collection ◽

Public Health Policy ◽

Policy Making ◽

Ethics Committee ◽

Prospective Data ◽

The Uk

IntroductionThe holistic management of hearing loss (HL) requires an understanding of factors that predict hearing aid (HA) use and benefit beyond the acoustics of listening environments. Although several predictors have been identified, no study has explored the role of audiological, cognitive, behavioural and physiological data nor has any study collected real-time HA data. This study will collect ‘big data’, including retrospective HA logging data, prospective clinical data and real-time data via smart HAs, a mobile application and biosensors. The main objective is to enable the validation of the EVOTION platform as a public health policy-making tool for HL.Methods and analysisThis will be a big data international multicentre study consisting of retrospective and prospective data collection. Existing data from approximately 35 000 HA users will be extracted from clinical repositories in the UK and Denmark. For the prospective data collection, 1260 HA candidates will be recruited across four clinics in the UK and Greece. Participants will complete a battery of audiological and other assessments (measures of patient-reported HA benefit, mood, cognition, quality of life). Patients will be offered smart HAs and a mobile phone application and a subset will also be given wearable biosensors, to enable the collection of dynamic real-life HA usage data. Big data analytics will be used to detect correlations between contextualised HA usage and effectiveness, and different factors and comorbidities affecting HL, with a view to informing public health decision-making.Ethics and disseminationEthical approval was received from the London South East Research Ethics Committee (17/LO/0789), the Hippokrateion Hospital Ethics Committee (1847) and the Athens Medical Center’s Ethics Committee (KM140670). Results will be disseminated through national and international events in Greece and the UK, scientific journals, newsletters, magazines and social media. Target audiences include HA users, clinicians, policy-makers and the general public.Trial registration numberNCT03316287; Pre-results.

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