CREARE LLC — Department of Defense SBIR Phase I: DHP14-008

Description

Hearing loss and tinnitus remain the most common service-connected disabilities, and may be caused by excessive noise exposure, as well as blast and impulse noise. Soldiers who experience tinnitus or mild-to-moderate hearing loss tend to have difficulty understanding speech in noise. While peripheral hearing loss can be addressed with amplification through a hearing aid, significant rehabilitation is still required to address loss of hearing processing ability. Creare and its partners propose to design, implement, and test a mobile application (app) for auditory training and tinnitus management specifically targeting the military user. The app gives the users the option to manage their tinnitus and perform hearing in noise training tasks. The tasks are based on hearing critical tasks common to many military occupational specialties and use phrases and functional noise recorded during military training. Creare is uniquely positioned to develop this technology thanks to its extensive experience in developing mobile technology for hearing and neurocognitive assessment, as well as its active involvement in the development of functional hearing tests to be used as part of new Army Hearing Standards for Return-to-Duty decisions.