Patient effort and satisfaction with telemedicine and traditional CI follow-up compared

Implanting clinics are responsible for the care process of their cochlear implant (CI) patients, from preoperative consultation to implantation and lifelong follow-up. The Remote Check (RC) app is part of the Cochlear™ Nucleus​ Smart App from Cochlear Ltd. and is designed to provide telemedicine support for annual follow-up care. In this multicenter study, follow-up appointments with the app and traditional CI follow-up were compared. Two groups of patients were recruited for this purpose. RC+ used the app, while RC- attended a traditional follow-up appointment on-site at the clinic/CI center. Up to 120 adult unilateral, bilateral, or bimodal CI users per study center (seven total) participated in the study. Data collected included questionnaire responses regarding the time and cost of the follow-up appointment, as well as satisfaction with it. Initial data showed a difference in time and cost for the two follow-up groups. While a follow-up appointment for RC- took an average of about 100 minutes (excluding travel time), it was 45 minutes for RC+. This contrasted with greater satisfaction with the follow-up appointment for RC-. About 50% of RC- could imagine using a telemedicine app for follow-up. When asked about their follow-up of choice, the majority of RC+ would prefer a follow-up appointment via app from home, while the majority of RC- would prefer an in-person on-site appointment, but just under 30% would prefer both alternately. A telemedicine app can usefully complement CI follow-up to reduce the time and effort required for this.

Cochlear Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG

 

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Publication History

Article published online:
12 May 2023