2024 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 17-19, 2024 • Denver, CO
EHDI for Late-Onset/Late-Identified Hearing Loss: What's Our Safety Net?
Universal Newborn Hearing Screening (NHS) has been extraordinarily successful at promoting early detection and identification of hearing loss in children. However, for every child identified as deaf or hard-of-hearing through NHS, another is identified later in childhood, though often still within the formative first three years of life. These are children who initially failed NHS and were lost to follow up, only to be identified later (LIHL: Late-Identified Hearing Loss), as well as children who passed NHS and developed postnatal onset or progression of hearing loss (LOHL:Late-Onset Hearing Loss). Children with LIHL are additionally more likely to belong to under-resourced groups who experience health disparities, putting them at increased risk for the sequelae of late identification, including speech, language, and educational delays. In contrast to universal NHS, systems for identification of LIHL/LOHL are highly fragmented. There are broad guidelines for objective hearing screening at the 4-year pediatrics well-child check and in kindergarten or first grade in public schools, but the critical period between birth and 4 remains a significant challenge. In this talk, I aim to review the impact and challenges surrounding LIHL/LOHL, mechanisms for addressing this critical gap in the EHDI system, and how we can support intervention for LIHL/LOHL.
Presenter: Dylan Chan
Dylan Chan, MD, PhD, FAAP, is Professor and Director of the Children’s Communication Center (CCC) in the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco. He received his PhD in Auditory Neuroscience from the Rockefeller University and MD from Weill Medical College of Cornell University. Dr. Chan completed his ONHS residency from Stanford University, followed by a Pediatric Otolaryngology fellowship at Seattle Children’s Hospital. He is the AAP EHDI California Chapter 1 Champion and Regional Network Liaison for the AAP EHDI program in California. In 2014, Dr. Chan established the UCSF Children’s Communication Center, which is devoted to delivering multidisciplinary care for families of deaf and hard of hearing children, performing community outreach and education, and conducting clinical and translational research projects. By addressing existing shortfalls in care delivery and developing novel interventions, he hopes to significantly impact hearing health in children.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exist.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exist.