Recruiting

Personal Amplifiers

Sponsor:

VA Office of Research and Development

Code:

NCT05028972

Conditions

Hearing Loss

Emergency Service

Hospital Readmission

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 60+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

Personal Amplifier

No Personal Amplifier

Study Details

Brief summary:

HearVA involves six VA facility emergency departments (ED) over a 3-year intervention period. The first part of this study will test whether providing personal amplifiers to Veteran ED patients who self-report hearing difficulty is acceptable to these patients, can improve their hearing, enhance understanding of discharge instructions, and can reduce the risk of coming back to the ED in a short period of time (3 days and 30 days). The second part of the study will then identify whether ED staff can implement this program and achieve similar results. The second part will give ED staff increasing levels of responsibility for screening Veterans for hearing difficulty and providing personal amplifiers when such difficulty is detected.

Conditions

Hearing Loss

Emergency Service

Hospital Readmission

Study ID

NCT05028972

Start date

Dec 8, 2021

Status verified date

Oct, 2025

Completion date

Sep 30, 2026

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Sep 30, 2026

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 60+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • English speaking
  • Emergency severity index criterion of 3 (medium), 4, or 5 (low acuity)
  • Hearing Handicap Inventory-Screen greater than or equal to 10 or positive answer to a single-item screening question
  • Capacity to consent to participate in research

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Inability to consent to participate in research
  • Emergency severity index criterion of 1-2 (high acuity)
  • Hearing Handicap Inventory-Screen less than 10 and negative answer to single item screening question
  • Inability to speak English
  • Using cochlear implants

Study Design

Enrollment

1050 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: Intervention: Personal Amplifier

Consenting participants will be randomly assigned to the intervention group while receiving care in the emergency department

other: Control: No Personal Amplifier

Consenting participants will be randomly assigned to the control group while receiving care in the emergency department

Interventions

Personal Amplifier

The intervention group will receive personal amplifiers (PockeTalkers) while they receive care in the ED

No Personal Amplifier

The control group will not receive personal amplifiers while they receive care in the ED

Primary outcome measure

  • ED 3-day Readmissions [ Time Frame: 3-5 days after initial ED stay ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Central contacts

Joshua Chodosh, MD MSHS

(310) 478-3711Joshua.Chodosh@va.gov

Lin T Tun

(646) 501-4132lin.tun@va.gov

Locations

Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center, Aurora, CO

Recruiting

Aurora, Colorado, United States, 80045-7211

Contacts

Lauren Abbate, MD

303-399-8020lauren.abbate@va.gov

VA NY Harbor Healthcare System, New York, NY

Recruiting

New York, New York, United States, 10010-5011

Contacts

Tali Finkelstein, MPA

(212) 686-7500Tali.Finkelstein2@va.gov

Olga Dotsenko

(212) 686-7500olga.dotsenko@va.gov

Principal Investigator:

Joshua Chodosh, MD MSHS

James J. Peters VA Medical Center, Bronx, NY

Recruiting

The Bronx, New York, United States, 10468

Contacts

Ula Hwang, MD

718-584-9000ula.hwang@va.gov

Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, NC

Recruiting

Durham, North Carolina, United States, 27705-3875

Contacts

Luna Ragsdale, MD

luna.ragsdale@va.gov

More Information

Sponsor

VA Office of Research and Development

Last update posted

Oct 21, 2025

Last verified

Oct, 2025

Keywords

  • Hearing loss
  • Emergency service
  • ED Revisit
  • Communication

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-09. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by VA Office of Research and Development on 2025-10-21.