Four themes,
one mission.
The Virtual Hearing Lab works at the intersection of audiology, digital health, and consumer informatics. Our four themes are united by a single aim: improving hearing health access, affordability, and outcomes worldwide.
Active
Consumer Health Informatics & Patient Experience
How patients seek, interpret, and act on hearing health information — and what patient-generated data reveals about real-world hearing aid experiences and barriers to care. We apply natural language processing and qualitative methods to online reviews, forums, and social media at scale.
- Online health information quality and readability
- Patient-generated data and consumer review analysis
- Help-seeking behaviour and decision-making
Social media
Help-seeking
Active
Digital Hearing Screening & Assessment
Developing and validating smartphone-based and remote tools for hearing and balance screening — from automated audiometry and digits-in-noise testing to in-situ hearing aid fitting, validated across clinical and community settings.
- Smartphone and automated audiometry validation
- Digits-in-noise speech testing
- Teleaudiology and remote assessment models
Teleaudiology
Active
Digital Therapeutics & Self-Management
Internet- and app-based interventions for hearing loss, tinnitus, and balance disorders — designed, tested through randomised controlled trials, and scaled to support structured self-management outside the clinic.
- Internet-based CBT for tinnitus
- mHealth auditory training and rehabilitation
- Randomised trials of digital interventions
RCT
Tinnitus
Active
Hearing Healthcare Service Delivery Models
Evaluating over-the-counter and direct-to-consumer hearing devices alongside community-based digital rehabilitation — creating new pathways to reach the majority of people with hearing loss who currently receive no intervention at all.
- OTC and self-fitting hearing aid outcomes
- Community health worker task-shifting
- Access and equity in low- and middle-income settings
LMIC