Remote hearing aid renewal using pre-existing audiograms during the covid-19 pandemic

Objective During the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, many patients cancelled their scheduled hearing aid renewal. We offered to send them new hearing aids programmed according to the audiometric data on file. In this study we compared remote hearing aid renewal to a conventional renewal with a recent audiogram based on scores from the International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids (IOI-HA) questionnaire. We also examined the need for a physical visit for hearing aid adjustment in the remote group and analysed the accuracy of the pre-existing audiogram correction method using data from the control group. Design Retrospective chart review. Study sample 51 patients who underwent remote hearing aid renewal and 22 control patients who received office-based hearing aid renewal. Results IOI-HA scores were lower in the remote fitted group, but comparison with data from a Swedish nationwide database had no clinically significant differences. A follow-up physical appointment was required in only 20% of the remote group. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) between the pure tone averages of the corrected former audiogram and measured audiogram was high. Conclusions Remote hearing aid renewal using existing audiometric data is feasible, and most physical visits can be avoided.