Development and Testing of a Questionnaire to Survey the International Status of Guidelines and Registers in Cochlear Implant Care

Introduction Cochlear implants are the gold standard in the care of profoundly hearing impaired or deafened patients. Due to the wide use of cochlear implants, standardization of the care process is necessary to ensure that all patients receive the same high-quality treatment. In Germany, this standardization is achieved through the White Paper on Cochlear Implant Care, the guidelines and the register. The aim of the study was to develop a questionnaire for CI specialists in various countries in order to determine existence or absence of guidelines and/or of a register in their respective countries, and to assess the content of these guidelines and/or of the register.

Method The questions were determined through a multi-stage selection process. The aim was to obtain comprehensible, informative and easily interpretable answers. The completed questionnaire was then tested by five people who were not involved in its development, and who made suggestions for its correction. Results The questionnaire included 30 questions: 5 about CI care in a respective country in general, 15 about the guidelines and 15 about the register in a respective country. After the above-mentioned testing, we now have the questionnaire for the international survey available.

Conclusion  A clearly structured and understandable questionnaire for the survey of guidelines and registers in the international context was developed. The questionnaire will now be sent to CI specialists worldwide to obtain an overview of the standardization of CI care in an international comparison.

Publication History

Article published online:
12 May 2023