Audiology: Diagnosis and Treatment

The use of the computer in audiology presupposes that audiological procedures are logical processes. This chapter discusses the logic involved in the clinical audiological diagnosis process. Two of the general procedures involved in the diagnostic process are case management and individual test management. Case management refers to the selection, interpretation, and prescription aspects of the diagnostic process. Individual test management deals with the administration and scoring of specific tests in the audiological battery. The field of audiology has been founded on a technological achievement, the electronic audiometer. The primary care provided by the field for rehabilition is amplification, founded on the technological capability which permits the use of minature circuitry in hearing aids. The chapter explains that given the technological orientation of the field, it is inevitable that the computer will become the basis for the hearing test of the future. The computer will be used in all areas of audiological management. The most obvious uses have already become established, for example, the development of database-managed hearing conservation programs and signal averaging for evoked auditory potentials. However, the potential of the computer to generate and control the acoustic signal through digital-to-analog conversion will lead to the use of stimuli that are much more complex. This will result in the evaluation procedures that can test more parameters of hearing.