Boston Children's to Launch Telehealth Pilot for Newborn Audiology Screening
The hospital is using a grant from the CARES Act to create a telehealth program that provides audiologists for virtual screenings at Cape Cod Hospital.
Boston Children’s Hospital is launching a telehealth program to screen newborns on Cape Cod and outlying islands for hearing issues.
The hospital is creating a hub-and-spoke telemedicine platform with Cape Cod Hospital to provide virtual access to audiologists for the pilot program, with coordination through the Universal Newborn Hearing Screening Program for follow-up care.
Officials say babies born on Cape Cod and the islands are more than twice as likely to miss out on follow-up care after a failed hearing screen, often because of the time and travel required to visit audiological diagnostic centers in Boston, Taunton or Fall River.
The program is funded by a grant from the Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs, which received some $4 million from the CARES Act in 2020 to support innovative telehealth programs that address barriers to child and maternal healthcare. AMCHP has funded 21 programs serving 18 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, Micronesia and two Native American tribes as a result of the funding.
“Telehealth removed many barriers to accessing healthcare, including geography,” Massachusetts Department of Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel, MD, MPH, said in a press release. “This innovative program will allow families to receive care in their community and ensure that babies receive the timely hearing testing they need.”
“We learned a lot about remote healthcare as our clinics responded to the COVID emergency,” added Derek Stiles, PhD, director of the audiology program at Boston Children’s Hospital. “We were able to apply that knowledge to setting up the remote hearing testing with Cape Cod Hospital, which will benefit families on the Cape and Islands beyond the lifting of quarantine.”