The CDC Early Hearing 411 app (EHDI411) has been designed and developed by the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) team, National Center for Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The main purpose of this app is to provide a way for parents to manage their children’s early hearing care information and share on-line medical and public health resources on infant and/or child hearing loss.
Main features include:
・ Profile: Provide basic personal hearing information management functions including date and results of newborn hearing screening, and risk factors for infant hearing loss. It also contains information about state and territorial EHDI programs in the US.
・ Q&As: Interactive "Tip cards" for parents to consult 6 different types of healthcare providers about infant hearing loss – Audiologists, Genetics team, Medical Professionals, ENT doctors, Speech and Language Pathologists, and Early Interventionists. For each type of provider, the users can view a list of questions about infant hearing loss, take text and/or audio notes while asking these questions during office visit, and distribute the notes through email to friends and family members.
・ Links: Online resources about infant hearing loss including professional, government, and community websites and podcasts from American Speech and Hearing Association (ASHA) and CDC.
・ Glossary: A short glossary about infant hearing loss for quick reference
All information included in the EHDI411 app comes from existing trusted sources including the CDC hearing loss website (http://www.cdc.gov/hearingloss). By transforming the static, web-based resource from multiple difference sources into a single smartphone application, the EHDI 411 app provides an integrated portable and interactive platform for users to obtain, access, and share educational resources about infant hearing loss. It also creates a way for patients (parents) to compile and communicate a customized personal hearing profile for better healthcare management.
The intended audience of this app is parents of infants and young children with hearing loss, or anybody who has concerns with their children’s hearing and wishes to get more information about infant hearing loss and speech and language development.