Mapping the hearing healthcare pathway in Australia: a data linkage study of the patient journey from general practice to audiology

Abstract

Abstract To comprehensively understand how patients with hearing loss navigate the journey from general practice to audiology clinics. This study involved linking two major general practice datasets with data from the largest hearing service provider in Australia, to develop a novel data warehouse. All analysis of demographics and patient events were performed using Python. Patient journeys were divided into three stages: general practice visits related to hearing, general practitioner (GP)-led interventions to manage hearing issues and addressing hearing loss by fitting a hearing device. Analysis of the data warehouse shows that GPs had minimal involvement in the patient journey. While most patients with confirmed hearing loss were fitted with a device (68.14%), only a fraction had GP involvement (3.34% had a hearing-related visit and 0.82% had an intervention at the GP clinic). However, when GPs intervened, it was associated with an earlier diagnosis ( p = 0.014). On average, from the time of a hearing-related GP visit, it took 1.09 ± 5.87 months for a hearing intervention by a GP; and 8.24 ± 31.67 months for device fitting. These findings suggest an urgent need to better integrate hearing health into general practice settings to enable earlier diagnosis and intervention, thereby mitigating hearing loss burden.