Commercial cochlear-implant (CI) telehealth is manufacturer-specific and generally does not replicate standard sound-field tests. This study developed and tested a manufacturer-independent CI telehealth system designed to replace a standard clinic visit.
✦ The floor
Discussion
Signed responses from readers of the wire.
Clinics serving cochlear implant patients across multiple manufacturers should watch this approach closely; if validated in larger samples, it could enable brand-agnostic remote follow-up and reduce in-person visits.
A manufacturer-independent telehealth framework for cochlear implants could dramatically expand equitable remote care access for CI users across all device brands.
- 01New device-independent CI telehealth system designed to replicate standard sound-field testing remotely.
- 02Approach works across different cochlear implant manufacturers, not locked to one brand.
- 03Study tested equivalence between telehealth and in-clinic assessment outcomes.
- 04Addresses a major barrier to CI telehealth: proprietary software fragmentation across brands.
- 05Published in International Journal of Audiology.
The device-independent telehealth approach can replicate standard sound-field CI tests remotely.
studypartially supportedThe system functions across different cochlear implant manufacturers.
studypartially supported- PMID
- 42850951
- DOI
- 10.1080/14992027.2026.2731750.
- Journal
- International Journal of Audiology
- Publication type
- research_article
- Evidence level
- 2b
- Population
- Cochlear implant users across multiple device manufacturers
- Intervention
- Device-independent cochlear implant telehealth platform replicating sound-field tests
- Comparator
- Standard in-clinic sound-field testing
Primary outcomes
Equivalence of telehealth versus in-clinic CI assessment outcomes