Early Detection and Intervention in Audiology

"Early hearing detection and intervention (EHDI) is the gold standard for any practising audiologist, and for families of infants and children with hearing impairment. Yet EHDI remains a significant challenge for Africa, and various initiatives are in place to address this gap in transferring policy into practice within the southern African context. Early Detection and Intervention in Audiology: An African Perspective aims to address the diversity of factors in southern Africa that presents unique challenges to teaching and research in this field. The South African government’s heightened focus on increasing access to health care, which includes ongoing Early Childhood Development (ECD) programmes, makes this an opportune time for establishing and documenting evidence-based research for current undergraduate and postgraduate students. Detailed case studies pay careful attention to contextual relevance and responsiveness to both identification and intervention in hearing impairment. With diverse contributions from local and international experts, but always with an African perspective, this textbook will be an essential resource for students, researchers and practitioners.

Preventive audiology

This book is an original scholarly book that introduces the concept of preventive audiology, with a specific focus on the African context, which is in line with the South African re-engineered primary healthcare strategy as well as the World Health Organisation’s approach. The book reflects on contextually relevant and responsive evidence-based perspectives, grounded in an African context on preventive audiology, in four major ear and hearing burdens of disease within the South African context: (1) early hearing detection and intervention, (2) middle ear pathologies, (3) ototoxicity, and (4) noise-induced hearing loss. The book represents innovative research, seen from both a South African and global perspective. It offers new discourse and argues for a paradigm shift in how audiology is theorised and performed, particularly in low-and-middle-income country contexts. The goal of this book is to motivate a paradigm shift in how the ear and hearing care is approached within this low-and-middle-income country context while arguing for Afrocentric best practice evidence that leads to next practice

DIL - A Conversational Agent for Heart Failure Patients

There is an exceptionally high rate of readmissions and rehospitalizations for patients suffering from Heart Failure. Best efforts to address this alarming problem from the Caregiver community have fallen short due to a shortage of trained clinical staff, failure to perform necessary self-management, and money. Using a Design Science Research framework, this work designed and evaluated DIL” (Sanskrit word for Heart), a Conversational Agent that complements the work of clinicians in achieving the desired behavioral and clinical outcomes. The aim is to provide the hospital with an information system that could bridge the current gap in care that occurs when the patient transitions from the hospital to the home environment. In a pilot study, we show that DIL was able to demonstrate the efficacy and utility as a tool to assist patients with heart failure in improving their self-care