Why is it Important?
The hearing impairment is diagnosed in three of every thousand babies born, that is twice more than frequency of cleft lip (palate), twice more than frequency of Down’s syndrome and ten times more than frequency of phenylketonuria.
The problem of diagnostics and treatment of hearing loss and deafness in this special category of patients is actual both in medical and social relations. Often the visual examination and other traditional diagnostic techniques of hearing impairment detection do not reveal the problem until 1 to 3 years of age — which is well beyond the critical period (6 months) for healthy speech and language development.
However, if a hearing impairment is identified and treated in its early stages, studies have shown that the child’s speech and language skills will be comparable to his or her normal-hearing peers. For these reasons, hearing screening at birth and routinely throughout childhood is extremely important. Timely and correct diagnosis provides an opportunity to start the hearing rehabilitation and child integration to speech environment as soon as possible.
What Should be Done?
Earlier to solve the specified problem, the hearing screening of newborns and babies was applied. It was based on the consideration of risk factors with the further examination of babies, included in the risk group, in specialized establishments. However, at such approach 50% of children drop out of sight.
The only possible solution of the problem concerning early detection and rehabilitation of children suffering from hearing loss and deafness is introduction of hearing screening with the use of objective technologies in maternity hospitals and maternity departments of patient care institutions.
At present time, the fundamentally new so called objective techniques of hearing study are developed and applied in clinical practice, they are computer audiometry by auditory brainstem response (ABR) and recording of otoacoustic emission (OAE). It allows performing hearing study in any age, even in newborns.
The whole front panel of the device is 4.3″ touch screen. The menu with the list of available tests will be displayed on the screen after device switching on. You should insert OAE probe into a patient’s ear properly and start the test by touching the screen two times. The program will inform you if the OAE probe is inserted incorrectly. The test will be performed in automatic mode if everything is correct. After the test the program will give “PASS” or “REFER” result. It is quite simple. Detailed video guide supplied with Neuro-Audio-Screen will help you to master the program operation.
The system is real easy to use even for untrained medical personnel including nursing staff.
Wireless Bluetooth Interface
Wireless Bluetooth Interface provides the opportunity to print exam results on wireless printer and export data saved in the device memory to the external computer with installed Neuro-Audio-Screen Manager. The program is supplied free with the device.
Neuro-Audio-Screen Manager works on Windows-based computer. Using this program you can prepare a list of patients you plan to examine, export exams to the computer database, print results or export toNeuro-Audio.NET software.
You can change test settings using the configuration menu. For example, you can use different modes of OAE test: “Screening”, “Noisy (screening)”, etc. It helps to customize settings quickly in order to perform any hearing exam starting from screening in a noisy room and up to expert study in a specialized hospital.