A multimodal database for the collection of interdisciplinary audiological research data in Spain

Hearing loss constitutes a major disability that hinders communica-
\ntion and quality of life. Recent evidence has uncovered its impact
\non cognitive decline, thus highlighting its multifactorial dimension
\nand the outstanding need for creating multimodal hearing data-
\nsets that further cover clinical data across different health domains.
\nThe aim of this study is to develop a multi-collaborative database
\nto systematically collect and analyze interdisciplinary data for
\naudiological research, including auditory thresholds, speech tests,
\nauditory evoked potentials, cognitive and quality-of-life tests, and
\nmedical images, among others. The database has been imple-
\nmented in the Otorhinolaryngology Service of the Virgen Macarena
\nUniversity Hospital in Seville, integrated in the Intranet of the
\nAndalusian Health Service, connected to the electronic patients’
\nmedical records. This database relies on open-source software
\nand complies with national and international guidelines on data
\nprotection. A specific registry module has been designed to auto-
\nmatically import auditory thresholds and auditory evoked poten-
\ntials from clinical devices into the platform. A mobile app has also been implemented to collect questionnaires from patients
\nremotely. A demo web version of the platform is freely available
\nto the audiology community. The multimodal platform developed
\npaves the way towards a multi-collaborative and unified framework
\nfor audiology research in Spain. Nevertheless, support from clini-
\ncians and healthcare stakeholders remains critical to develop more
\nevidence and high-quality multimodal open datasets in hearing
\nresearch.