Assessing the Role of Medical Caption Technology to Support Physician-Patient Communication for Patients With Hearing Loss: Mixed Methods Pilot Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Speech recognition technology is widely used by individuals who are Deaf/deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) in everyday communication, but its clinical applications remain underexplored. Communication barriers in health care can compromise safety, understanding, and autonomy for individuals who are DHH.

Objective

This study aimed to evaluate a real-time speech recognition system (SRS) tailored for clinical settings, examining its usability, perceived effectiveness, and transcription accuracy among users who are DHH.

Methods

We conducted a pilot study with 10 adults who are DHH participating in mock outpatient encounters using a custom SRS powered by Google's speech-to-text application programming interface. We used a convergent parallel mixed-methods design, co

SUBMITTER: Hughes SE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12806592 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature