Better hearing rehabilitation for adult first-time users (the BEAR project)

First-time adult hearing-aids users do not always experience the debut with success, and it is known that some give up. For the professional fitting the hearing aid, it is often a difficult to figure out, if the hearing aid is poorly fitted to the individual, and whether it is set for best performance or not. The purpose of the BEAR project is to develop a stronger framework for the diagnostics, fitting and assessment of the aided performance that will allow for a more structured, and personalized approach. The project includes several scientific efforts, incl. 1) the collection of data for almost 2.000 patients fitted according to current practice, 2) the development and assessment of new diagnostics for profiling and fitting strategies, as well as 3) development and assessment of methods for measurement of the aided performance. The on-going work includes a proposal for a differentiated fitting based on extended auditory profiles, and is accompanied by both in- and outof-clinic options for testing and/or reporting on the aided performance experience. Future results
will include an experimental validation of the proposed differentiated fitting, as well as separate efforts to investigating common denominators for patients with poor compensation benefits, and options for out-of-clinic application of the proposed methods.