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Professor Doris-Eva Bamiou and a team of researchers and clinicians from the Ear Institute lead the clinical activities of the innovative, big data collecting, EVOTION project.
The project
The EU-funded project EVOTION aims to collect ‘Big Data’ from hearing aid users in order to inform public health policies related to the prevention, diagnosis and rehabilitation of hearing loss. It also aims to inform policies relating to the detection and prevention of cognitive decline and to improve the inclusion of people with hearing loss within the society. To this end, the project is developing public health decision making models as well as a technology platform that allows data to be fed into a data repository where it can be stored.
To support this process, an ongoing clinical study is collecting a big set of varied data including pre-existing hearing aid related data, and new clinical data. It will also collect real-time Big Data by using smart hearing aids, a mobile app and wristband bio-sensors.
Ultimately, the data will enable the development of the EVOTION model and platform, which could be used as a tool to help public health policymaking.
This project addresses key overall strategic priorities of the NIHR Biomedical Research Centres (BRC) to drive innovation in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of ill-health and translate advances in biomedical research into benefits for patients, and the strategic aim of the UCLH Deafness and Hearing BRC to tailor interventions to individual patients' needs.
The clinical study
Hearing aid candidates are currently being recruited for the study at the Hearing Aid Centre of the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital, London. They are fitted with the EVOTION smart hearing aids, undergo a set of audiological and other assessments (including measures of patient-reported hearing aid benefit, mood, cognition and quality of life and are given wearable bio-sensors and a smartphone with applications to collect real life data about hearing aid use in different, real-life environments and situations.
The data collected will be analysed using Big Data Analytic methods to detect patterns of hearing aid use and effectiveness for different types of hearing loss, and to identify links between different factors affecting hearing aid use and benefit.
Equipment that will be given to EVOTION patients: smart hearing aids, wristband sensors and smartphone with pre-installed applications to allow the collection of Big Data.
The UCL Ear Institute team
Professor Doris-Eva Bamiou from UCL Ear Institute is the Scientific Coordinator of the project and is joined by a great team of other Ear Institute researchers and clinicans: Dr Giorgos Dritsakis (Research Associate), Ms Lee Ann Ng (Research Audiologist) and Dr Greg Genna (Research Associate).
Professor Bamiou together with other key partners including OTICON, CITY University, ICCS (Athens, Greece) and University of Athens had been working on the core concept of the EVOTION grant application over the last 3 years.
Can I take part?
You can take part if you are an existing patient of or the RNTNE Hospital or if you are referred for a hearing aid until September 2018 and meet the following criteria.
In order to take part in the study you must:
- Be 18 years old or above
- Have a basic understanding of English
- Have mild to severe hearing loss
- Not have dementia
- Be willing to use hearing aids for at least 2 hours daily on average
- Be able to use a smartphone
If you would like to take part or have questions about the study please contact the Ear Institute clinical team on: uclevotion@gmail.com.
More information
You can watch a recent BBC story about the EVOTION project here:
- Learning On Screen video clip (login required, only available in UK)
The EVOTION clinical protocol has been published at the British Medical Journal open access and you can find it here:
You can also follow us on Twitter @h2020evotion
EVOTION is a large consortium of 13 partners in 7 European countries.
