The aims of the present study were to investigate the required resources to allow the remote programming of Cochlear Implants (CI), and to assess the benefits and limitations of implementing this model of programming in Brazilian hearing health care services. The study was conducted with two multichannel CI recipients from the Audiological Research Center (CPA/HRAC) of the University of São Paulo - Brazil (USP) and two audiologists. One of the professionals was based at the CPA/HRAC-USP, which was the reference center (RC), and the other audiologist was based at an Audiology Center located more than 900mi away from the RC, which was called remote area (RA). The audiologist from RA had no previous experience in programming CI devices. The procedure consisted in remotely training the RA audiologist. After the conference call, the RA professional and the implanted subjects answered a previously elaborated questionnaire. The study showed the following advantages of applying Cochlear Implant Remote Programming: decentralization of the hearing health care services, training and enabling of professionals, cost reduction for the Public Health Care System (SUS), and systematic monitoring of implanted patients. Conference call is an effective, feasible and innovative model of monitoring cochlear implant's recipients in Brazil. However more studies are necessary in order to make the remote programming available nationwide.
Remote consultation; Cochlear implant; Hearing loss; Telemedicine; Case reports
