With hearing loss on the rise — and a global shortage of audiological services to help — tele-audiology is becoming increasingly important.
Ear Science Researcher, clinical audiologist and speech-language pathologist Karina Tao is investigating if tele-audiology is up for the challenge.
As part of her newly submitted thesis, Karina examined a series of landmark audiology studies, each the first of its kind. Overall, she found that a trained facilitator can act as the ‘hands’ of an audiologist remotely with equal effectiveness; however, technical issues can affect the patient’s satisfaction, even if the health outcomes are the same.
Karina thanks her colleagues for their support in developing her research.
“Thanks once again to all the wonderful people at Ear Science Institute Australia and Lions Hearing Clinic who helped me to accomplish my PhD. You all collaborated with me on the studies and important findings. I am glad I had the opportunity to work with you and I’ll be forever thankful.”
Karina’s work is due for publishing in about six months.
