The Eargroup, Herentalsebaan 75, B-2100 Antwerp-Deurne, Belgium.
Dept. ENT, Jessa Hospital, Hasselt, Belgium.
Cochlear Implants Int. 2020 Sep;21(5):260-268. doi: 10.1080/14670100.2020.1757840. Epub 2020 May 13.
This study aims to assess the feasibility of autonomous cochlear implant (CI) fitting by adult CI recipients based on psychoacoustic self-testing and artificial intelligence (AI). A feasibility study was performed on six adult CI recipients implanted with a Nucleus device. Two weeks after processor activation in the clinic, a 'self-fitting' session was organized in a supervised simulated home environment. The CI recipient performed pure tone audiometry and spectral discrimination tests as self-tests. The AI application FOX analysed the results and recommended a new map. The participants filled out a questionnaire and were tested again after 2 months of take-home experience. Four out of six patients performed the self-tests without any help from the audiologist and four were fitted by FOX without any manual intervention. All patients were comfortable with the concept of self-testing and automated fitting. Patients acknowledged that at this stage the remote supervision of an audiologist remains essential. The study showed that audiological self-assessment and remote CI fitting with AI under the supervision of an audiologist is feasible, at least in a number of CI recipients. Currently, there are still some technical and regulatory challenges to be addressed before this can become routine practice.
本研究旨在评估成人人工耳蜗植入（CI）受者基于听力学自我测试和人工智能（AI）进行自主 CI 适配的可行性。对六名植入 Nucleus 设备的成年 CI 受者进行了可行性研究。在临床激活处理器两周后，在受监督的模拟家庭环境中组织了“自我适配”会议。CI 受者进行纯音测听和频谱辨别测试作为自我测试。AI 应用程序 FOX 分析结果并推荐新的映射。参与者填写了一份问卷，并在 2 个月的家庭体验后再次进行了测试。六名患者中有四名在没有听力学家帮助的情况下完成了自我测试，有四名通过 FOX 进行了适配，无需任何手动干预。所有患者都对自我测试和听力学家远程监督下的自动适配的概念感到满意。研究表明，在听力学家的监督下，进行听力学自我评估和远程 CI 适配与 AI 是可行的，至少在一些 CI 受者中是可行的。目前，在这成为常规实践之前，仍有一些技术和监管方面的挑战需要解决。
