Inside look at the 60/60 Guidelines

When should a patient be referred for a cochlear implant evaluation? That question was the main objective in a recent study published by Dr. Terry Zwolan, Ph.D. Data showed that 92.3% of patients who met traditional candidacy had a better ear unaided word recognition score that was less than 60%. Similarly, 95% of the patients had a better ear PTA (based on an average of thresholds at 500, 1K and 2K) that was greater than 60 dB HL. It’s important for hearing health professionals to consider the 60/60 metric when evaluating someone’s hearing because so many patients who are candidates for a cochlear implant are not being referred. Visit https://www.cochlear.us/when-to-refer to learn how you can encourage more referrals.