The use of telehealth by audiologists: a survey
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2016-10-13
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Towson University. Department of Audiology, Speech-Language Pathology and Deaf Studies
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Abstract
Telehealth in audiology is a means of providing hearing healthcare to patients, who have limited access to necessary services. These telehealth services can be provided to patients in remote areas of the world as well as underserved clinical populations within the United States. Telehealth allows audiologists to use various forms of technology such as videoconferencing or application sharing to bridge the gap between the location of the patient and the hearing healthcare provider (Swanepoel et al., 2010a). Telehealth is an emerging trend within the field of audiology and has been applied to hearing screening, various diagnostic procedures, and intervention services. The aim of this study was to qualitatively assess the audiologists knowledge and current practices related to telehealth .
A survey about telehealth was sent to 2000 audiologists across the country. The survey asked a series of questions for current users as well as non-users of telehealth. Results from this study indicated that people age 25-35 were more likely to use telehealth in their practice. The survey results also indicated that users of telehealth felt that it assisted them in providing healthcare to people in remote areas. Non users of telehealth reported that the reliability of test results was their primary perceived barrier to providing telehealth. A variety of other results between the two groups were revealed. The majority of participants in this study expressed interest in receiving future education regarding telehealth. Implications of the results obtained from this survey are explored.