Prevalence of Childhood Hearing Loss in Rural Alaska.

Objectives: Childhood hearing loss has well-known lifelong consequences. Certain rural populations are at higher risk for infection-related hearing loss. For Alaska Native children, historical data on hearing loss prevalence suggest a higher burden of infection-related hearing loss, but updated prevalence data are urgently needed in this high-risk population.

Telemedicine Referral to Improve Access to Specialty Care for Preschool Children in Rural Alaska: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objectives: Preschool programs provide essential preventive services, such as hearing screening, but in rural regions, limited access to specialists and loss to follow-up compound rural health disparities. We conducted a parallel-arm cluster-randomized controlled trial to evaluate telemedicine specialty referral for preschool hearing screening. The goal of this trial was to improve timely identification and treatment of early childhood infection-related hearing loss, a preventable condition with lifelong implications.

Changing the Paradigm for School Hearing Screening Globally: Evaluation of Screening Protocols From Two Randomized Trials in Rural Alaska.

Objectives: Diagnostic accuracy was evaluated for various screening tools, including mobile health (mHealth) pure-tone screening, tympanometry, distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE), and inclusion of high frequencies to determine the most accurate screening protocol for identifying children with hearing loss in rural Alaska where the prevalence of middle ear disease is high.

Design: Hearing screening data were collected as part of two cluster randomized trials conducted in 15 communities in rural northwest Alaska. All children enrolled in school from preschool to 12th grade were eligible.

Mobile health school screening and telemedicine referral to improve access to specialty care in rural Alaska: a cluster- randomised controlled trial.

Background: School-based programmes, including hearing screening, provide essential preventive services for rural children. However, minimal evidence on screening methodologies, loss to follow-up, and scarcity of specialists for subsequent care compound rural health disparities. We hypothesised telemedicine specialty referral would improve time to follow-up for school hearing screening compared with standard primary care referral.

Hearing Norton Sound: community involvement in the design of a mixed methods community randomized trial in 15 Alaska Native communities.

Community involvement is important in good research practice. We led a community-based study to improve early detection and treatment of childhood hearing loss in rural Alaska. This study evaluated a cell phone-based hearing screening process and compared a new telemedicine specialty referral pathway to the standard primary care referral pathway.

The eardrums move when the eyes move: A multisensory effect on the mechanics of hearing.

Interactions between sensory pathways such as the visual and auditory systems are known to occur in the brain, but where they first occur is uncertain. Here, we show a multimodal interaction evident at the eardrum. Ear canal microphone measurements in humans ( = 19 ears in 16 subjects) and monkeys ( = 5 ears in three subjects) performing a saccadic eye movement task to visual targets indicated that the eardrum moves in conjunction with the eye movement.