Prof. Dr. Dr. Birger Kollmeier, Oldenburg
Video 3 2017
“Precision audiology: How multilingual speech tests can make individual success of a hearing aid fitting predictable”
“Precision medicine” is reaching audiology and hearing aid fitting. How can the validity, reliability, and efficiency of auditory diagnostics and hearing aid prescription be increased to such a degree that the individual hearing success provided by a hearing aid is precisely
predictable? How can the benefit expected from optimised hearing aid fitting be gauged against the benefit expected from an auditory implant (i.e. cochlea implant) already before surgical intervention?
The relevant, most recent research results regarding rehabilitative audiology gained by the Cluster of Excellence Hearing4All (Oldenburg/Hannover) will be presented. By using the Master Hearing Aid and by conducting speech recognition measurements based on the multilingual, closed-set matrix test (e.g. “Peter buys eight wet rings”), the benefit derived from a fitting can precisely be assessed. The comparison between measurement and precise prediction using an automatic speech-recogniser-based model is used to differentiate between deficits in fitting and deficits in the individual‘s processing. This procedure is to provide the acoustician with a tool to achieve an optimised, individualised hearing aid fit with active participation of the client that is based on the realistic optimum that can be reached for the individual client.