The members of PACT

In PACT 17 Audiological Centres co-operate. All centres have been certified by the FENAC, the Dutch Federation of Audiological Centres. This guarantees high quality standards with respect to equipment and personnel. In all centres multi-disciplinary teams are present, consisting at least of audiologists, audiology assistants, speech and hearing therapists, psychologists, social workers, and ENT-specialists. Most centres have their own technical facilities and Dutch audiologists are physicist, with a 4-years post-doctoral training in clinical audiology and audiological research. The scientific aspects of the research projects will be supported by the university laboratories that are closely connected to the eight participating academic audiological centres that participate.

Goals

PACT has been established as a platform for independent clinical research related to the use of hearing aids. PACT focuses on the following issues:
    •     field trials with commercially available hearing aids or with more experimental prototype hearing aids.
    •     research in fitting procedures.
    •     validation of subjective and objective evaluation methods.
    •     evaluation of specific questions concerning the prescription and provision of hearing aids.

Procedures

    •     Most of the research will be sponsored research-projects, initiated by manufacturers that are interested in specific questions concerning their own hearing aids or more general items related to hearing aid prescription.
    •     Manufacturers can express their intention for a specific project, which will be the basis for a draft project proposal and a provisional calculation of the costs. Part of the costs will be the variable costs that are related to each subject participating in the study. Part of the costs will be a fixed amount necessary for the project set-up, project co-ordination and reporting.
    •     PACT members can express their interests to participate in the study mentioned in the draft protocol and will indicate the number of subjects they are able to contribute within a certain period. The sponsor is allowed to choose the centres that he wants to contribute in the study and the final project proposal (including the final costs) can be established.
    •      The proposal has to be approved by the Medical-Ethical Council of one or more universities, participating in the project.
    •     A project leader will be appointed from the participating PACT members. He is primarily responsible for the project co-ordination., the statistical evaluation of the results, and the reporting to the manufacturer and (if possible) in the literature.

For more information, please contact:
   prof.dr.ir. Wouter A. Dreschler
   dept. of Clinical & Experimental Audiology
   Academic Medical Centre, Amsterdam
   tel. (31) 20 566 3434
   fax (31) 20 566 9068
   email: w.a.dreschler@amc.uva.nl