Early detection and intervention of Age-Related Hearing Impairment (ARHI) in primary care settings

Challenge: Helsinki: Wildcard – How can innovative remote diagnostics improve city services?

Target Group: Elderly

The main objective of the pilot developed by Otos Health Oy, was to streamline hearing- and ear-health assessment in primary healthcare settings. The specific aims were to reduce wait times, optimise resource allocation, and improve care access for adults and elderly people experiencing hearing difficulties.

A test system utilising automated audiometry and digital otoscopy was constructed to serve the needs of the pilot host, based on co-creation sessions. The number of patients per day could be approximately doubled, without burdening the pilot host staff. The patients were scheduled every 30 minutes instead of 60 minutes in conventional practice. The mean duration of digital otoscopy and automated audiometry was 10:49 minutes. 06:18 minutes per patient was spent on filing the test results to the existing medical record system. Four out of 27 patients had their ears cleaned prior to their appointment at Tikkurila Health Centre. Digital otoscopy was successful for 78% of the pilot patients with the CE-marked device (Ear Penguin). This might increase to over 90% with xx proprietary device (Otos Scope). The next steps include further development to provide the pilot host with a test system that is integrated with the IT infrastructure of Tikkurila Health Center.