Journal of Patient Experience (Sep 2023)

Trial of Affordable Bone Conduction Headphones to Support a Deaf Child's Education in Malawi

  • Modesta Bene,
  • Mwanaisha Phiri Au.D,
  • Isobel Fitzgerald Oconnor MD,
  • Catherine de Cates MD,
  • Thomas Hampton MD,
  • Tamsin Holland Brown MD

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/23743735231202654
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10

Abstract

Read online

A 13-year-old child with hearing loss secondary to chronic serous otitis media and bilateral tympanic perforations had been unable to hear the teacher at school and unable to pass end-of-year exams. In 2020, she trialed a bone conduction headset paired by Bluetooth to a remote microphone and used this to support her hearing at school, socializing with friends and in the family home. Due to the COVID (COronaVIrus Disease) pandemic and a cholera epidemic, she was followed up 3 years later. The child (now 16 years old) reported using the headset every day for 3 years. Able to hear the teacher, she reported having passed school exams every year since using the device, and now had ambitions to study medicine.