A multisite study to examine the efficacy of the otoacoustic emission/automated auditory brainstem response newborn hearing screening protocol: introduction and overview of the study.

Purpose: This article is the 1st in a series of 4 articles on a recently completed multistate study of newborn hearing screening.

Method: The study examined the efficacy of the 2-stage otoacoustic emission/automated auditory brainstem response (OAE/A-ABR) protocol for identifying hearing loss in newborns.

Results: The study found that the 2-stage OAE/A-ABR protocol did miss a significant number of babies who exhibited a permanent hearing loss by 1 year of age. Three subsequent articles will describe the research design and results in detail, discuss the behavioral assessment of infants, and summarize the implications of the study for policy, practice, and research.