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10/13/2017  |   10:30 AM - 11:30 AM   |  West Ballroom at Shalala Student Services Building

“Service Delivery Model and Validation of Low-Cost Hearing Aid Distribution by the Arizona Sonora Borders (ARSOBO) Projects for Inclusion in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico”

In an effort to reduce the health care disparities experienced by underserved populations in Mexico, the Arizona Sonora Borders (ARSOBO) projects for inclusion provides low-cost assistive devices to individuals with disabilities, including hearing impairment. Located in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico, the project provides a range of audiologic services including comprehensive hearing evaluations, hearing aid selections/fittings, as well as follow-ups and outside referrals. Since inception in December, 2014, the ARSOBO hearing health clinic has provided audiologic hearing healthcare to 109 children and 328 adults. The low-cost hearing devices distributed by ARSOBO have been assessed for amplification quality and performance according to the World Health Organization electroacoustic standards for hearing aid distribution in developing countries. Hearing aid fittings are done using a “fitting guide” created by our team based on the analysis of 110 patient audiograms by our clinical team. The six most common degrees and configurations of hearing loss were identified. From these six most common losses, a guide for “first fit” trim potentiometer hearing aids was developed. To assess the effectiveness of hearing aid fittings, subjective outcome measures were administered upon return for follow-up. The selected outcome measure is the International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids (IOI-HA) 29 total surveys were administered. The results of these surveys and how they relate to the effectiveness of the ARSOBO hearing healthcare clinic were evaluated.

• Describe the successes and limitations of the service delivery model utilized of the Arizona Sonora Borders projects for inclusion in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico
• Discuss the development and implementation of an innovative and novel hearing aid fitting guide for the Resound Match low-cost hearing aid
• Validation of the low-cost hearing aid fittings using the International Outcome Inventory for Hearing Aids (IOI-HA)

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Page Beukelman (POC,Primary Presenter), University of Arizona , pbeukelm@email.arizona.edu;
Page Beukelman is a fourth year Doctor of Audiology candidate in the University of Arizona Department of Speech Language and Hearing Science in Tucson, Arizona. Over the past three years, Page has been a team leader for the Arizona Sonora Borders (ARSOBO) Hearing Healthcare Program in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. She has presented posters on her humanitarian audiology research with ARSOBO at national conferences including the American Academy of Audiology (AAA) AudiologyNOW! conference and the American Auditory Society (AAS) Annual Conference. Next year Page Beukelman will doing an externship at Boston Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts where she hopes to pursue her goal of working as a pediatric audiologist.

ASHA DISCLOSURE: Financial - Nonfinancial -

AAA DISCLOSURE: Financial - No relevant financial relationship exists.

James Dean (Author), ARSOBO, jdean1@email.arizona.edu;
Jim has over 30 years of experience in audiologic assessment and audiologic intervention across the lifespan. His current community and clinical research interests are in developing hearing healthcare service delivery models suitable for implementation in low resourced communities. He has extensive experience working in humanitarian audiology projects nationally and internationally. He has published articles on building sustainable hearing healthcare programs and “best practice” in humanitarian hearing healthcare . Jim previously served on the Arizona Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities faculty (University of Arizona LEND) and the Robert Woods Johnson Clinical Scholars National Advisory Committee. Currently he is the director for hearing healthcare services in the Arizona Sonora Borders Projects for Inclusion (ARSOBO) program based in, Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. He is also a member of ARSOBO Board of Directors.

ASHA DISCLOSURE: Financial - Nonfinancial -

AAA DISCLOSURE: Financial - No relevant financial relationship exists.

David Velenovsky (Author), tba, dsv@email.arizona.edu;
tba

ASHA DISCLOSURE: Financial - No relevant financial relationship exists. Nonfinancial - No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.

AAA DISCLOSURE: Financial - No relevant financial relationship exists.