Visiting Ancillary Services is a Denver-based 501c3 charity that performs a host of vital community services for the elderly and vulnerable, including testing for and treating ear and dental issues. Often providing care within a nursing home environment, the Visiting Ancillary Services team has specific protocol in place for evaluating and assisting those with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
Those who were previously deemed “untreatable” benefit from proprietary modalities such as electrophysiological testing. In assessing hearing loss issues, audiologists employ the Auditory Steady-State Response (ASSR) protocol, which is employed in generating statistically valid audiograms in cases where patients are not willing or able to take part in traditional testing.
ASSR is a measure of bioelectric activity taken through electrodes that deliver acoustic stimuli. The sound stimuli are repeated at a fast rate, with peak detection spanning a spectrum of inputs. The resulting waveforms are then carefully examined by the examiner for presence of a response.
Primary ASSR candidates include infants, including those in neonatal intensive care units, and adult patients who are comatose or unresponsive. In addition, the tests may be performed in situations where patients are not cooperative for legal or other reasons. The objective, statistics-based foundation of ASSR makes it ideal for accurately defining a patient’s actual hearing capacities.
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