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

随着人口老龄化，中国正面临着重大的医疗挑战。听力障碍是中国老年人面临的主要临床问题之一。中国有超过7500万人有听力障碍，50岁以上的人中有40%有某种形式的听力损失。中国的助听器大多数是西方国家开发的，基于无音调的英语，而不是音调的汉语，而且它们也非常昂贵。正常的听力筛查需要适当安静的测试环境。在中国，由于听力筛查中心的短缺，频繁的助听器校准也非常困难。因此，迫切需要开发一种适合中国人群的助听器，并提供一种在家中经常筛查和监测助听器的简单方法。我们的建议是开发一种新颖的低成本助听器和基于云的听力康复解决方案，提供个性化的听力筛查，在线治疗校准和激励服务，专门针对中国家庭人口。

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.