D-2-6: Report about the results of the multicentre evaluation of the Auditory Profile. Public report

Twenty-eight partners participated in the FP6 EU-funded project HearCom, with the goal to improve hearing in our communication society. One of the main achievements has been the provision of advanced hearing screening tests by telephone and Internet. For hearing diagnostics it was aimed at the harmonization of hearing diagnostic tests within Europe. For this the concept of the Auditory Profile has been developed with several tests for various languages. Hearing problems are also a result of adverse acoustical circumstances for which the effects have been studied, modelled and evaluated for hearing impaired. For hearing rehabilitation a large scale comparison study was performed on signal enhancement techniques (algorithms) for hearing devices. Modern technology may assist on hearing and communication by the use of wireless technology and automatic speech transcription. On this it is shown that improvements for auditory communication can be obtained, but that technology should develop further. An overview is given on the HearCom portal with sections for screening diagnostics, hearing information for the public and professionals, and a new service called HearCompanion that provides step-by-step support for the hearing rehabilitation process.