Data Analytics to Support Policy Making for Noncommunicable Diseases: Scoping Review.

Background: There is an emerging need for evidence-based approaches harnessing large amounts of health care data and novel technologies (such as artificial intelligence) to optimize public health policy making.

Objective: The aim of this review was to explore the data analytics tools designed specifically for policy making in noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and their implementation.

Methods: A scoping review was conducted after searching the PubMed and IEEE databases for articles published in the last 10 years.

Involving Children and Teenagers With Bilateral Cochlear Implants in the Design of the BEARS (Both EARS) Virtual Reality Training Suite Improves Personalization.

Older children and teenagers with bilateral cochlear implants often have poor spatial hearing because they cannot fuse sounds from the two ears. This deficit jeopardizes speech and language development, education, and social well-being. The lack of protocols for fitting bilateral cochlear implants and resources for spatial-hearing training contribute to these difficulties.

Developing an intervention to optimise the outcome of cardiac surgery in people with diabetes: the OCTOPuS pilot study.

Background: Cardiothoracic surgical outcomes are poorer in people with diabetes compared with those without diabetes. There are two important uncertainties in the management of people with diabetes undergoing major surgery: (1) how to improve diabetes management in the weeks leading up to an elective procedure and (2) whether that improved management leads to improved postoperative outcomes. The aim of this study was to develop and pilot a specialist diabetes team-led intervention to improve surgical outcomes in people with diabetes.

The Optimising Cardiac Surgery ouTcOmes in People with diabeteS (OCTOPuS) randomised controlled trial to evaluate an outpatient pre-cardiac surgery diabetes management intervention: a study protocol.

Introduction: Cardiothoracic surgical outcomes are poorer in people with diabetes compared with those without diabetes. There are two important uncertainties in the management of people with diabetes undergoing major surgery: (1) how to improve diabetes management in the weeks leading up to an elective procedure and (2) whether that improved management leads to better postoperative outcomes. We previously demonstrated the feasibility of delivering the Optimising Cardiac Surgery ouTcOmes in People with diabeteS (OCTOPuS) intervention, an outpatient intervention delivered by diabetes healthcare professionals for people with suboptimally managed diabetes over 8-12 weeks before elective cardiac surgery.

Experiences of Patients With Auditory Processing Disorder in Getting Support in Health, Education, and Work Settings: Findings From an Online Survey.

To explore the views and experiences of individuals with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) and/or their families in getting support from services and to receive their suggestions for improvement. Cross-sectional random sample survey with descriptive analysis. Online survey.

Public health policy-making for hearing loss: stakeholders' evaluation of a novel eHealth tool.

Background: Hearing loss (HL) affects 466 million people of all ages worldwide, with a rapidly increasing prevalence, and therefore requires appropriate public health policies. Multi-disciplinary approaches that make use of eHealth services can build the evidence to influence public policy. The European Union-funded project EVOTION developed a platform that is fed with real-time data from hearing aids, a smartphone, and additional clinical data and makes public health policy recommendations based on hypothetical public health policy-making models, a big data engine and decision support system.

A Data-informed Public Health Policy-Makers Platform.

Hearing loss is a disease exhibiting a growing trend due to a number of factors, including but not limited to the mundane exposure to the noise and ever-increasing size of the older population. In the framework of a public health policymaking process, modeling of the hearing loss disease based on data is a key factor in alleviating the issues related to the disease and in issuing effective public health policies. First, the paper describes the steps of the data-driven policymaking process.

Challenges and Strengths of Multidisciplinary Research in Audiology: The EVOTION Example.

Purpose The EU-funded research project EVOTION has brought together clinical, technical, and public health experts with the aim to offer a solution for the holistic management of hearing loss. This report presents the challenges, strengths, and key take-home messages of working in this multidisciplinary consortium. Method Fifteen consortium members completed an online survey with 6 open-ended questions.

Adult normative data for the speech in babble (SiB) test.

The Speech in Babble (SiB) test assesses the perception of speech in noise in UK adults. Here, we define the normal range of SiB scores to enable the use of the test in clinic. In each test, 25 monosyllabic words were played in background multi-talker babble.

Clinical validation of a public health policy-making platform for hearing loss (EVOTION): protocol for a big data study.

Introduction: The holistic management of hearing loss (HL) requires an understanding of factors that predict hearing aid (HA) use and benefit beyond the acoustics of listening environments. Although several predictors have been identified, no study has explored the role of audiological, cognitive, behavioural and physiological data nor has any study collected real-time HA data. This study will collect 'big data', including retrospective HA logging data, prospective clinical data and real-time data via smart HAs, a mobile application and biosensors.

A Music-Related Quality of Life Measure to Guide Music Rehabilitation for Adult Cochlear Implant Users.

Purpose: A music-related quality of life (MuRQoL) questionnaire was developed for the evaluation of music rehabilitation for adult cochlear implant (CI) users. The present studies were aimed at refinement and validation.

Method: Twenty-four experts reviewed the MuRQoL items for face validity.

Impact of music on the quality of life of cochlear implant users: a focus group study.

Objective: To study the aspects of the quality of life (QoL) on which music has an impact in adult cochlear implant (CI) users.

Methods: Thirty adult CI users aged between 18 and 81 years old with a wide range of patient characteristics and musical backgrounds participated in the study. Six focus group discussions about music in everyday life were conducted and data were analysed using template analysis based on the QoL model of the World Health Organisation Quality of Life BREF questionnaire.

The effect of spectral smearing on the identification of pure F0 intonation contours in vocoder simulations of cochlear implants.

Objectives: Performance of cochlear implant (CI) users on linguistic intonation recognition is poorer than that of normal-hearing listeners, due to the limited spectral detail provided by the implant. A higher spectral resolution is provided by narrow rather than by broad filter slopes. The corresponding effect of the filter slope on the identification of linguistic intonation conveyed by pitch movements alone was tested using vocoder simulations.