Audiologists’ preferences in programming cochlear implants: A preliminary report

Abstract

Background: There is little data available addressing how clinical audiologists handle cochlear implant (CI) programming between device manufacturers and make decisions on related services, particularly in the United States.

Objectives: This study sought to understand the techniques and settings professionals use with their patients, how they approach bimodal fitting, which tests they use to evaluate patient and device performance, and their overall preferences of (re)habilitative options.

Methods: A questionnaire was developed and distributed to CI audiologists throughout the United States electronically.

Results: All respondents reported either always or almost always using Cochlear’s default signal processing strategy in contrast to the 64% reported for Med-El and 40% for Advanced Bionics. A trend of less use of electrically evoked stapedial reflex threshold (eSRT) than electrically evoked compound action potentials (eCAP) for objective measures was revealed. Higher likelihood of performing speech recognition tests in quiet than in noise was revealed. Preferences for bimodal fitting trend toward using a partner company’s hearing aid, although preferences were comparable in adopting four types of hearing aid formulas surveyed in the questionnaire.

Conclusions: These data confirm high variability among audiologists’ CI programming practices, and documenting these differences is an important step to understanding how to best treat patients.

Keywords:

• Cochlear implants
• Audiologists
• Audiological Practice
• Survey

Acknowledgement

Portions of the data have been presented at the CI2018 Emerging Issues Symposium and AAA2018. The authors are indebted to Mr. Sean Kastetter for his inspiration of the clinical questions, and Dr. Beth Hulvey for her assistance with data collection. We also thank the study participants who contributed their clinical expertise to this research.

Disclaimer statements

Contributors None.

Funding This work was supported by James Madison University: [Grant Number Roger Ruth Memorial Fund Doctoral Student Research Grant].

Conflicts of interest None.

Ethics approval None.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed 10.1080/14670100.2019.1708553.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Leanne M. Browning

Leanne M. Browning received her AuD from James Madison University. She is currently a clinical audiologist at CENTA Medical Group and specializes in pediatric and adult diagnostics and hearing aids.

Yingjiu Nie

Yingjiu Nie is an associate professor at James Madison University and a licensed audiologist in Virginia. Her research interests are in the areas of cochlear implants, speech perception, and psychoacoustics.

Ayasakanta Rout

Ayasakanta Rout is an associate professor and the program director of Audiology at James Madison University. His research interests are in the areas of hearing aid signal processing and outcomes assessment of audiological intervention.

Meredith Heiner

Meredith Heiner is Clinical Senior Audiologist at Virginia Commonwealth University, specializes in adult and pediatric cochlear implants as well as pediatric neurophysiology and diagnostic testing.