<p>Simulation education for medical and health professional training bridges
classroom learning and training in a clinical environment. Its use has been
increasing over the past two decades and has skyrocketed over the past
year. The field of audiometry is no exception. Due to logistical
challenges, it is often difficult to gain access to the audiometry hardware
and other resources required for training and practice. AvatarAudiometer
helps lessen this problem via an interactive online tool that mimics a real
audiometer and simulates patient responses. The system consists of a
simulation of pure-tone audiometry and a tool for graphing results on a
standard audiogram interface. AvatarAudiometer allows students to measure
unmasked air- and bone-conduction thresholds for each ear at octave and
inter-octave frequencies between 250-8000 Hz. The virtual patients'
responses to tones are based on their individual hearing level thresholds.
AvatarAudiometer patients differ from one another in their frequency of
false positive/negative responses, range of reaction times, and duration of
holding down the virtual response button. Two sources of patient
audiometric profiles are included: 1) curated audiograms simulating
specific types, configurations, and severities of hearing loss, along with
a brief description of each virtual patient’s case history, and 2) a sample
of several hundred audiograms representative of the United States’
population by age and sex selected from the CDC’s NHANES database.
AvatarAudiometer includes a tutorial that demonstrates functions and
settings of a standard audiometer. Students can complete numerous pure-tone
audiometric exams and screen large cohorts of virtual patients to simulate
a hearing-screening protocol. After testing is complete, an interface for
plotting, editing, and downloading corresponding diagnostic pure-tone
audiometric results on an audiogram, or entering and verifying screening
results, is provided.</p>
<p>Contact email: Lauren.Calandruccio@case.edu & Daniel.Weidman@case.edu</p>
<p>Daniel Weidman & Lauren Calandruccio </p>
<p>Available May 3</p>
<p><em>Lauren Calandruccio, Ph.D., CCC-A</em></p>
<p>Associate Professor</p>
<p>Case Western Reserve University</p>
<p>Department of Psychological Sciences</p>
<p><em>t</em> 216.368.4499 <em>f</em> 216-368-6078 <em>e</em> lauren.calandruccio@case.edu
<em>web</em> <a href="http://caslabs.case.edu/sparlab/" rel="nofollow">http://caslabs.case.edu/sparlab/</a> <em>p</em> she|her|hers</p>
