By Lynn O’Boyle and King Chung
This article is a part of the May/June 2019, Volume 31, Number 3, Audiology Today issue.
The Dominican Republic shares with Haiti the island of Hispaniola, which is between the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. It is the home to approximately 10.6 million people. The Dominican Republic is known for its exportation of sugar, coffee, and tobacco (Central Intelligence Agency, 2017). The Dominican Republic is also known to be the originating place of bachata and merengue, popular styles of Latin America music and dance.
In this touristic destination and low-income country, quality audiology services and education seem unlikely. Yet, nonprofit organizations have been working diligently to provide best practices in hearing health care.
Audiology Services
Ear and hearing services are difficult to access in the Dominican Republic, especially in areas outside of Santo Domingo and Santiago, the two largest cities. The main barriers are lack of trained professionals, lack of surgical tools, and access difficulty due to distance and cost.
The Dominican Republic only has approximately 60 to 65 ear, nose, and throat physicians (ENTs), who are heavily concentrated in the capitol city, Santo Domingo. The only residency otolaryngology training program in the country produces two to three new ENTs a year. With the exception of one U.S.-trained ENT, the ENTs are not trained to perform microscopic ear surgeries because of lack of microscopes. Patients depend heavily on visiting surgeons from overseas to perform these surgeries.
Audiologists are a rarity in the Dominican Republic. One nonprofit hospital system, eight private hearing centers, and some private practice ENT offices are responsible for serving the whole country. As most of them are clustered in Santo Domingo and one in Santiago, the rest of the country is mostly underserved (Carkeet et al, 2014).
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