Hearing Loss Calculator Determines Disability With 100% Accuracy

January 28, 2011 - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as of late has been not only been focusing on providing better care, but doing it at a lower cost. The latest example of this is Renford Patch's new invention, which aside from helping veterans, streamlined a very cumbersome paper-driven process.

Renford Patch is a VA disability claims reviewer. In his spare time, he wrote and developed a software program that measures hearing loss. If it determines there is hearing loss, it calculates to what extent. The examiner then uses that information to adjust the veterans' disability claims. His hearing test calculator served to essentially automate the process used to determine hearing loss in veterans. Patch's hearing loss calculator is so effective that the Veterans Benefits Association (VBA) is using it across their entire system.

The hearing calculator takes audio metric data from veterans' hearing tests, evaluates it, and then measures the extent of hearing loss afflicting the veteran, if any. If it is determined the veteran does have hearing loss, the amount of loss is reported in terms of decibels and how severe the loss is. The calculator uses this information to determine how much disability payment is warranted.

It only took a one summer test run for the VBA to adopt the calculator for claim examiner use. With 100% accuracy and the ability to cut processing time down to a fraction of what is currently, it is not hard to see why it was so quickly implemented.