Rural populations experience a disproportionate burden of childhood hearing loss. The public health impact is tremendous, with lifelong effects on educational attainment, psychosocial outcomes, and future vocational opportunities. School-based health programs provide essential access to services for rural children, but limited access to specialists and loss to follow-up reduce the effectiveness of these programs. Alaska has a large rural population that relies on a well-established statewide telemedicine network to address barriers to care. However, this network has never incorporated preventive services such as school hearing screening. Furthermore, although Alaska mandates hearing screenings in schools, little evidence exists on which screening protocols are most effective.
