This scoping review aims to identify gaps and promising practices and to propose recommendations for Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) programs integrating new data sources for the timely identification of infants who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH). The review addresses the critical problem of infants being lost to follow-up (LTFU) or documentation (LTD) after failing initial hearing screenings. The review found that 49 public health agencies currently incorporate early hearing data into integrated systems, and that administrative databases such as Medicaid show promise for identifying missed cases, though verification is needed due to potential coding errors. The findings suggest that EHDI programs have substantial opportunities to improve timely identification and intervention for at-risk infants by strategically leveraging combined data sources, even with limited resources.

In addition to this report, check out a blog post from our audiology team about a system built to leverage generative artificial intelligence (AI) to automate the classification of pediatric audiology reports.