A novel hearing aid including online screening and calibration for multi-tone language speakers in China

China is facing major healthcare challenges as its population ages. One of the major clinical problems many elderly people in China are facing is hearing impairment. There are over 75 million people with hearing impairment and 40% of over 50 year-old have some form of hearing loss.

The majority of hearing aids available in China are those developed by western countries, based on the non-tonal English language, rather than the tonal Chinese, and they are also very expensive. Normal hearing screening requires appropriately quiet test environment. Frequent hearing aid calibration is also very difficult in China due to the shortage of hearing screening centres. Therefore, there is an urgent unmet need to develop a hearing aid which is tailored for the Chinese population and to provide a simple way of screening and monitoring hearing aids frequently at home. Our proposal is to develop a novel and low cost hearing aid and a cloud-based hearing rehabilitation solution with personalised hearing screening, online therapeutic calibration and motivation service specifically for Chinese population at home.