About Us
The Virtual Hearing Lab is an interdisciplinary collaborative research initiative with the aim to improve hearing health access, affordability, and outcomes by capitalizing on the internet, virtual spaces, and digital health.
This initiative is a partnership between the University of Colorado School of Medicine (US) and the University of Pretoria (South Africa). The Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology at the University of Pretoria is also a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Center for Prevention of Deafness and Hearing Loss.
What We Do
At the Virtual Hearing Lab, our focus is to:
- Apply rigorous interdisciplinary research methods and consumer health informatics approaches to better understand hearing health experiences, barriers and enablers.
- Inform and develop translational person-centered technology and service-delivery solutions.
Research Themes
Theme 1: Online user activities to inform and predict help-seeking behavior, intervention uptake, use and satisfaction in hearing loss and balance disorders
Theme 2: Digital health solutions for hearing and balance screening and assessment
Theme 3: Internet- and mHealth-based interventions (digital therapeutics) to facilitate behavior change and improve hearing health outcomes
Theme 4: New service delivery models (e.g., direct-to-consumer, community-based rehabilitation) to optimize hearing healthcare service delivery
Theme 5: Synthesis of evidence (systematic reviews) to inform clinical practice and policy decisions
Key Areas
Consumer Health Informatics
Digital Health
Digital Therapeutics
eHealth
mHealth
Internet Interventions
Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Randomized Controlled Trials
Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis
Teleaudiology
Telehealth
Telerehabilitation
Academic Partners
Industry Partners
