Manchester Centre for Audiology and Deafness (ManCAD) / Research / Treatment and management

Treatment and management

Current projects

Communication strategies for increased social participation

Funder:

Widex A/S.

Staff involved:

Gabrielle Saunders, Antje Heinrich External: Karolina Smeds.

Project overview:

The aim of this study is to develop an easy-to-use Personalized Communication Strategies Guide that increases communication success. The guide will be a supplement to hearing aid use and will be offered to patients using a shared-decision-making approach to ensure it meets their preferences and needs.

To this end we are first conducting surveys of audiologists and patients to determine the communication strategies people with hearing loss use and find helpful in daily life. We will then conduct an effectiveness trial of the guide with first-time hearing-aid users.

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Pilot project to assess the feasibility, acceptability and uncertainties ahead of establishing a tinnitus biobank

Funder:

Tinnitus UK.

Staff involved:

Gabrielle Saunders, Amber Roughley, Carlyn Murray, Lucy Ferrie, Kevin Munro.

Project overview:

A biobank is a collection of biological data/information made available for research. Tinnitus UK has funded this study to assess whether data collection for a tinnitus biobank is feasible in a mobile research unit.

We have selected a set of low burden, reliable and easy-to-administer tests that characterise tinnitus, and mental health and well-being following lab-based testing of a large test battery. This set will be completed by people with tinnitus attending an appointment that takes place in a mobile research unit located around Greater Manchester.

Participant acceptance, recruitment, follow through, and logistical feasibility will be used by Tinnitus UK to finalise their plans for a tinnitus biobank.

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That looks noisy: Using visual cues to improve clinical assessment of self-reported hearing

Funder:

NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre.

Staff involved:

Gabrielle Saunders, Emanuele Perugia, Sam Couth.

Project overview:

Questionnaires used to assess perceived hearing difficulties require individuals to rate their listening difficulty based on written descriptions of communication situations (e.g. in a busy restaurant).

In order to increase accessibility for individuals with low literacy/who speak a different language, increase test-retest reliability, and minimise differences arising due to interpretation of written text, we are developing an image-based questionnaire that uses photographs instead of written descriptions of communication situations.

The image-based questionnaire will evaluate hearing in everyday situations, be clinically practical (take less than five minutes to complete), highly relatable (images will be chosen by people with hearing loss), and highly accessible.

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Clinical applications of Ecological Momentary Assessment for hearing healthcare:  Real world of hearing loss-related stigma and affiliate stigma

Funder:

Sonova.

Staff involved:

Suhani Pattanshetti, Gabrielle Saunders, Sam Couth.

External: Charlotte Vercammen.

Project overview:

This PhD project aims to find a sensitive unobtrusive way to measure hearing-related stigma in both the person with hearing loss and their communication partner(s).

Retrospective questionnaires or interviews provide rich data but encounter recall bias, Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) avoids recall bias but can be intrusive. Measures such as heart rate, blood pressure and electrodermal activity can be assessed in the real world in real time via a smart watch but they have not been validated as measures of hearing-related stigma.

In this project, we will aim to combine these three types of measurement approach to measure hearing-related sigma.

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EASY LISTENING (EASYLI): Optimising the consequences of effortful listening in occupational settings

Funder:

HORIZON-MSCA-2022-DN-01- MSCA Doctoral Networks 2022.

Staff involved:

Rebecca Millman, Gabrielle Saunders.

Externals: Adriana Zekveld (PI), Torsten Dau (supervisor). Dorothea Wendt (supervisor), Hamish Innes-Brown (supervisor).

Project overview:

EASYLI aims to train a new generation of entrepreneurial scientists who can develop and apply an interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral toolbox of ambulatory and laboratory measures of listening effort and listening value (i.e. the costs and benefits of effortful listening).

They will be able to harness the potential of real-time acoustic scene analysis, virtual acoustics (VA), and physiological and subjective measures to predict and mitigate the effect of acoustically challenging scenarios on relevant behavioural, occupational and health outcomes.

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Follow-up and structured monitoring for adults offered a NHS hearing aid for the first time (FAMOUS)

FAMOUS logoFunder:

National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

Staff involved:

Kevin Munro on behalf of the FAMOUS team and Biomedical Research Centre partners.

Project overview:

The follow-up and monitoring of new adult hearing aid users is ill-defined and non-evidence based. The government, via the NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme (NIHR131159), has funded a national project to address this gap-in-knowledge. The aim is to investigate the clinical and cost-effectiveness of a follow-up and monitoring intervention compared to usual care.

The project involves recruitment of a total of around 3,600 new adult hearing aid users across as many as 40 NHS audiology services. The project is a collaboration between the three NIHR Biomedical Research centres with a hearing research theme (Manchester, Nottingham and University College London Hospital).

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Caring for hearing aid use in babies (CHerUB)

CHERUB logoFunder:

Medical Research Council (MRC), National Deaf Children’s Society.

Staff involved:

Kevin Munro, Ciara Kelly, Anisa Visram, Chris Armitage, Lindsey Jones, Helen Chilton.

Project overview:

Consistent use of hearing aids from an early age is associated with better language outcomes for babies and toddlers with hearing loss/deafness. However, hearing aid use is at its lowest and most variable in the early years and families face many challenges when it comes to achieving consistent hearing aid use.

Working closely with parents, Teachers of the Deaf and Audiologists, the CHerUB project aims to develop a deeper understanding of the barriers and facilitators to infant hearing aid use, to then identify how best to support families and develop an intervention to increase infant hearing aid use.

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