title: Subjective and objective outcomes from new BiCROS technology in a veteran sample.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patients with single-sided deafness (SSD), where one ear has an unaidable hearing loss and the other ear has normal or aidable hearing, often complain of difficulties understanding speech and localizing sound sources, and report a higher self-perceived hearing disability. Patients with SSD may benefit from using contralateral routing of signal (CROS) or bilateral contralateral routing of the signal (BiCROS) amplification. Dissatisfaction of previously available (Bi)CROS devices has been reported, such as, interfering transmissions, low-fidelity sound quality, poor "user-friendly" set-up, and a bulky and cosmetically cumbersome appearance.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  Recent advances in hearing aid technology have improved (Bi)CROS hearing aids; however, these devices have not been experimentally evaluated. We hypothesized that newer technology with reports of improved digital signal processing, wireless transmission, and physical design would be as good, or better than, our participants' previous-generation BiCROS systems.
  
  
  METHODS
  A within-subjects, pretest-posttest design was executed.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-nine veterans (one female, 38 males; mean age = 74 yr, range = 49-85 yr) from the Audiology Section of the Bay Pines Veterans Affair Healthcare System participated. All participants were previously experienced BiCROS hearing aid users with varying degrees of sensorinerual hearing impairment in their better ear.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants were provided at least 4 wk of consistent use with the new BiCROS. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSES: Participants completed three research visits. At Visit 1, with their previous BiCROS, and at Visit 3, with their new BiCROS, the following objective and subjective measures were obtained: (1) soundfield speech-in-noise testing using the Words-In-Noise (WIN) test; (2) speech, spatial, and qualities of the hearing scale (SSQ) questionnaire; (3) selected questions from the MarkeTrak questionnaire; and, (4) three open-ended questions. Data were analyzed using parametric and nonparametric statistics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall, the objective (WIN) and subjective (SSQ, MarkeTrak, and open-ended questions) measures indicated that the new BiCROS provided better outcomes than the previous BiCROS system. In addition, an overlap of favorable results was seen across measures.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Of the 39 participants, 95% reported improvements with the new BiCROS and chose to utilize the device regularly. The favorable objective and subjective outcomes indicate that the new BiCROS system is as good, or better than, what was previously utilized by our sample of veterans.
authors.affiliation: Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA. vawilli2@mail.usf.edu
authors.forename: Victoria A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Rachel A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: McArdle
authors.forename: Theresa H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Chisolm
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006310:Hearing Aids; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D046088:Hearing Loss, Unilateral / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009622:Noise; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013067:Speech Perception; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014728:Veterans