Objective: Telepractice, as an emerging approach to speech therapy, has reduced healthcare costs and enabled online treatment options during the COVID-19 pandemic. While substantial research has demonstrated the efficacy of telepractice in delivering effective speech therapy, there is limited exploration of its potential effects on the assessment and reliability of voice disorder evaluations. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the impact of telepractice on voice quality by comparing original recordings with audio signals transmitted through the widely used telepractice platform, Zoom, using both auditory-perceptual voice assessments and acoustic analyses.

Methods / Design: This experiment was conducted as a controlled study. A total of 45 normophonic and 45 dysphonic voice samples were randomly selected from the Perceptual Voice Qualities Database (PVQD), which is a publicly available database of disordered voices. All voice samples were standardized in terms of recording conditions, duration, and volume to ensure consistency. The selected samples were then transmitted through Zoom telepractice to simulate remote communication.

Auditory-perceptual assessments were conducted by 2 speech-language pathologists based on GRBAS. Acoustic analyses were performed using Praat, and a range of acoustic parameters including mean, maximum, minimum and standard deviation values of fundamental frequency (F0), jitter, shimmer, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), cepstral peak prominence (CPP), and dysphonia severity index (DSI) were obtained.

Results: Preliminary acoustic analyses reveal that voice samples transmitted via Zoom show reductions in voice quality metrics. Increased variability in parameters such as jitter and shimmer reflects greater signal instability, while decreases in SNR and CPP values suggest diminished signal clarity. These acoustic deviations present potential challenges for Zoom-based voice assessments, as they may obscure clinically relevant voice characteristics.

Conclusions: The findings indicate that voice quality transmitted via Zoom does not fully retain the integrity of the original recordings, potentially impacting the reliability of remote voice assessments. These results highlight the need for adjustments in telepractice protocols and compensatory technological solutions to enhance the fidelity of voice quality evaluations in remote settings.