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

Our findings support the potential of real-time captioning to enhance accessibility and reduce the cognitive and mental burden of communication for individuals who are DHH in clinical care. Participants described the SRS as both functionally effective and personally empowering. While accuracy for complex medical terminology remains a limitation, participants consistently expressed trust in the system and a desire for its integration into clinical care. Future research should explore real-world implementation, domain-specific optimization, and the development of user-centered evaluation metrics that extend beyond transcription fidelity to include trust, autonomy, and communication equity.