Introduction to HearGlueEar

Presented on Monday, 4th October 2021

Content

Of all the children who are deaf across the world fewer than 10% wear a hearing aid of any kind. Research in Cambridge has been searching for an affordable solution for the most common type of hearing loss in childhood affecting the middle ear: glue ear.

Children have small anatomy and after a cough cold or ear infection can suffer with fluid build up behind the ear drum affecting the transfer of sound. The hearing aids that work well for this condition transfer sound using bone conduction technology which can be expensive, up to £3000.

A solution costing approx £50 for a headset (which aims to be available to the public later in 2021) has been trialled, with the help of the Cambridge charity - The Raspberry Pi Foundation - as well as a free app called Hear Glue Ear (available now on google and android app stores) which aims to prevent children falling behind while they have glue ear, and help home management between appointments.

This solution was researched during the Covid pandemic in 2020 when children were unable to access hearing services or grommet operations. The whole headset, microphone and app was sent by post to families who were then able to manage their child’s condition at home by using the app to check hearing and then using the headset to support hearing loss.

The research has been submitted for journal peer review but has not yet been published. In the meantime, due to its relevance to Covid, it has been published on the preprint server Medrixiv and European PubMed.

Participants said:

"Clear presentations very relevant to deaf education."

"Tamsin and Juan are both so knowledgable about this subject, and so passionate about the pupils, which really comes across."

Target Audience

Teachers of deaf children, Speech and Language Therapists, Audiologists, and Parents

Presenters

Dr Tamsin Holland Brown, Community Paediatrician specialising in children who are deaf, Cambridge

Dr Juan Mora, Consultant Audiovestibular Physician, Royal Hospital for Children, Glasgow