Patent ID: 7695441

Claim:
A system for quickly and conveniently testing a patient's hearing without a sound isolation chamber and with minimal assistance from an operator, comprising: transducers; a hearing test device connected to the transducers; a computer connected to the hearing test device and storing an automated hearing test thereon, the automated hearing test configured to cause the computer to: present to the patient a list of available hearing tests, including a pure tone test, a speech reception test, and a speech discrimination test; prompt the patient to select one or more hearing tests from the list of available hearing tests; and perform each hearing test selected by the patient, wherein test data obtained during one hearing test is used in another hearing test, and test data obtained during one iteration of a hearing test is used in subsequent iterations of that hearing test; wherein the automated hearing test includes a pure tone frequency module configured to cause the computer to obtain a hearing threshold for a plurality of predetermined frequencies and obtain an unmasked bone conduction hearing threshold for one or more of the predetermined frequencies; and wherein the automated hearing test further includes a pure tone threshold module configured to cause the computer to, for each frequency being tested, obtain an unmasked bone conduction hearing threshold for the patient, determine a better ear and a poorer ear based on the unmasked bone conduction threshold, and determine one or more hearing thresholds, including at least an air conduction hearing threshold, for the better ear and the poorer ear, and issue a bone conduction threshold warning for the first frequency being tested if the air conduction hearing threshold for the better ear is larger than the unmasked bone conduction threshold by a predetermined amount.