Telessaúde: avaliação da eficácia da teleconsulta na programação e adaptação de aparelho de amplificação sonora individual

Abstract

Teleconsultation is an efficient procedure for hearing aid programming, verification and fitting when face-to-face services are not available.

Teleaudiologia: comunicação profissional-paciente na programação e adaptação de aparelhos de amplificação sonora individuais via teleconsulta

“…On the average, the time spent for the HA programming and verification procedures via teleconsultation was 5.87 minutes greater than the time spent in face to face consultations ( Table 2). As a consequence, the total time of the teleconsultation was 16% (4,23 minutes) longer than the face consultations, and such findings in agreement with other studies (8,19) .…”

“…In areas where there is shortage of skilled professionals, either the patient or the professional needs to travel in order to have access to health care. Such travel, when not hindered or even prevented by geographic and economic barriers, per se adds greater cost and time to the treatment (8) .…”

“…It's possible that the experimental group participants had fewer difficulties in handling the HA, not requiring resumed instructions as pointed in literature (8) . On the other hand, it is also possible that the use of webcams has hampered the professional to identify the patient inadequate skills to handle the HA, leading to a lower use of reparative strategies such as the discussion of such topics and reinstruction of the individual.…”

“…A Speechlanguage pathologist without any experience in the HA selection and fitting process acted as a facilitator. He was previously trained on the use of the softwares Skype® and TeamViewer 8®, HA connection to the programming cables, insertion and removal of the HA and/or probe tube, probe tube calibration and participant positioning for the tests (8) . The facilitator also lead the participants to the treatment room ("test environment"), informing them as to the type of consultation to be carried out.…”

“…Preoccupation with professional-patient communication efficiency becomes more evident when distance consultations (teleconsultation), carried out in different fields of audiology, are considered (8) . This scenario may present challenges to professional-patient communication, with the need for a greater use of communication repair strategies (9,10) , mostly for the hearing impaired.…”