Speaker
Description
Currently, a typical hearing aid fitting procedure starts with amplification settings prescribed by audi-ogram-based fitting methods, followed by a subse-quent, often iterative, fine-tuning phase. While tech-nical procedures such as real-ear measurements are widely used to verify amplification, they do not di-rectly assess perceptual dimensions. The method revoloud was developed to enable a rapid clinical assessment of aided loudness perception. The method presents 60 natural signals covering three presenta-tion levels and four frequency categories. Patients rate the perceived loudness of each signal, and the results are visualized as a loudness map relative to a normal-hearing reference. To investigate the meth-od’s use in routine clinical practice, a survey among 125 hearing care professionals using revoloud was conducted. The results indicate frequent use of the method in daily practice, with 83 % of respondents reporting usage at least three times per week. A large majority of respondents reported perceived benefits, including fewer loudness-related complaints with hearing aids in daily life and improved patient understanding and involvement during the fitting process. These findings suggest that perceptual loud-ness assessment can support outcome-oriented hear-ing aid fitting in clinical practice.