eligible for cochlear implant and many questions

BleedingPurist said:
There is nothing large about the Neptune compared any other body worn processor... and yes, it is nice to have it off the ear. It's great to put on a cap and go out in public completely incognito.

The reason it's not even smaller is the fact it uses an AAA battery. That is no small feature in itself. It's a battery type that is easily available giving you flexibility.

A canal-placed processor is not going to happen. You are in fantasyland not taking in to consideration the power needs. No battery that small can power 120 virtual channels or any strategy, really. Maybe in a couple of decades. An In-the-ear-canal hearing aid is possible because it uses low amplification levels with minimal power. You won't see anyone with a severe-loss using one. A cochlear implant has very different, yet increased power needs depending on how much work it is doing. Look at the rechargeable batteries for the Behind-The-Ear processors for all three major-implant brands. That's where the smallest size is currently.
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Never say never. Technology continues to improve, get smaller and become more energy efficient.
How It Works: A Laser-Powered Ear Implant to Boost Hearing | Popular Science
Stem Cell Therapy - Hearing Loss Cure - Stanford University School of Medicine
 
What I'm trying to find is any evidence that the Phonak partnership is leading to any binaural features between a Phonak hearing aid and a CI processor. I know many people who wear both, a Phonak Naida UP on one side and a CI on the other, and they are unable to work together on features like audio zooming, phone programs and all those things that give the improved performance to Naida 9 over the most basic Naida. Does anyone know if this is coming?
 
all i know is that Phonak and Advanced Bionics are both owned by Sonova, and from my understanding they both are working together on a new smaller BTE CI processor for AB users. I'm guessing both AB and Phonak will develop products that will work together (CI and HA working together) for the bi-modal users.
 
RoseRodent said:
What I'm trying to find is any evidence that the Phonak partnership is leading to any binaural features between a Phonak hearing aid and a CI processor. I know many people who wear both, a Phonak Naida UP on one side and a CI on the other, and they are unable to work together on features like audio zooming, phone programs and all those things that give the improved performance to Naida 9 over the most basic Naida. Does anyone know if this is coming?
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I am not quite sure if I am clear on the question. By phone programs do you mean "Telecoil?" All major CI manufacturers have a Telecoil available. Most AB users prefer to use the T-mic as a more natural and ready solution since their hearing needs change going from a hearing aid to a CI. Other than that, there really is no need for a special phone program.

As for audio zooming, AB users have the newly released in the U.S. "Clear Voice." It's an incredibly effective noise program with Low, Medium, & High options. With it on in a car, the road/wind noise is either greatly diminished if not completely removed but speech is perfectly loud and clear. In a noisy place like a party or restaurant the surrounding noise and chatter is diminished with the closer/prominent voices brought to the forefront. In general, if the user hears well in quiet, they'll do better than a hearing person in noise with it on. It is beyond audio zooming. It constantly adjusts to the environment so you aren't making adjustments yourself. It is not like Beam, Focus, Adro or whatever. It's done at the strategy level so the entire sound input is analyzed and then handled appropriately. It also requires 120 channels/virtual channels to deliver it and can be used full-time if you wish.

It is likely all or most of the features you see on Phonak hearing aids will be incorporated into the next BTE.. at least as options. Your hearing needs do change significantly from using a hearing aid and tend to require less ALDs. Many people don't realize this until they cross over and go into it looking to have the same habits.
 
We chose for Cochlear for Lotte as isthe choice was between MedEl or Cochlear. Oslo did not offer AB at the time due to problems with the implant some years before.
We based it on reliability and history. Plus esthetics. We didn't like how the MedEl looked...
 
BleedingPurist said:
I am not quite sure if I am clear on the question. By phone programs do you mean "Telecoil?"
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No. For example in the Phonak hearing aids if you have two (premium) aids then you can use something like Duophone where the sound from the phone is played into BOTH hearing aids, not just one side. You can use audiozoom so that if someone is talking at your left side then some of the signal from the left ear is sent wirelessly to the right ear to help you to understand the person, it's like you have 100% of the person talking to your left and 25% of the signal in your right ear is also that person's voice. If someone has two hearing aids or two implants then this kind of thing is available, but if someone has one hearing aid and one implant they don't work together in that way. It would be interesting if they were developing it so someone could have a Naida on one ear and a new version of something like AB Harmony on the other ear, and would be able to use Duophone and Audiozoom, and to have a single streamer that would send a phone or music signal to the two ears instead of having one type of streamer/cable for the hearing aid and a different one for the implanted side, so that e.g. the iCom would work with the AB processors too.
 
Normally when one is to be Implanted-the situation is exactly now re whatever technological improvements- to date. Five years from now doesn't matter. Given the ongoing improvements of all Implants- only now is important. We can't hear "backwards" from potential future improvements.

In the meantime what does one do with the "DEAF condition"-now?
 
Only time will tell. Who knows what Sonova (with AB and Phonak) will come up with. Technology is constantly changing.

An Audiologist from AB just did an interview, and she mentioned Phonak and AB were working together on the technology. There's still not a lot of specifics yet on what they're working on though.
http://www.audiologyonline.com/interview/interview_detail.asp?interview_id=626


Read it if you're interested.
 
cdmeggers said:
Only time will tell. Who knows what Sonova (with AB and Phonak) will come up with. Technology is constantly changing.

An Audiologist from AB just did an interview, and she mentioned Phonak and AB were working together on the technology. There's still not a lot of specifics yet on what they're working on though.
Interviews from Audiology Online: Interview with Tracey Kruger, Vice President of Marketing, Advanced Bionics, LLC


Read it if you're interested.
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Thanks for posting that! Tracy is great! I've worked with her directly in fine-tuning one of my programs. Knowing that people like her are there working to constantly further our hearing by expanding capabilities of the internal implant, not to mention what they've already done, puts me at ease. They are dedicated to their mission.
 
Incidentally, I hear that AB are working on a hybrid implant like the Cochlear Hybrid and Medel EAS 2. That's potentially exciting news for people with a huge sloping loss, I think (personally) that the Cochlear one is a bit of a cop-out, maybe to get around first stage FDA trials by using pre-existing technology instead of starting from scratch, theirs basically seems to be a Nucleus Freedom processor with an ITE hearing aid dangling from it - ineed the prototype was exactly that, and I am not sure how much has changed. The Medel EAS is an integrated processor to operate both the implant and the hearing aid section, but boy do Medel make some ugly ass processors! Well, I don't like them. AB working with Phonak on a hybrid product is exciting in terms of getting another properly integrated product on the market.
 
Hybrid "products" Hearing Aids & Cochlear Implant don't appear to make much sense. Dealing with different conditions, Deafness is not the same as having some problem with hearing. I used a Phonak LL6 before becoming bilateral DEAF in 2006.

I am aware of the new company which owns both.
 
RoseRodent said:
Incidentally, I hear that AB are working on a hybrid implant like the Cochlear Hybrid and Medel EAS 2. That's potentially exciting news for people with a huge sloping loss, I think (personally) that the Cochlear one is a bit of a cop-out, maybe to get around first stage FDA trials by using pre-existing technology instead of starting from scratch, theirs basically seems to be a Nucleus Freedom processor with an ITE hearing aid dangling from it - ineed the prototype was exactly that, and I am not sure how much has changed. The Medel EAS is an integrated processor to operate both the implant and the hearing aid section, but boy do Medel make some ugly ass processors! Well, I don't like them. AB working with Phonak on a hybrid product is exciting in terms of getting another properly integrated product on the market.
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Are you currently implanted? Hybrids target a very small population since with most people, the hearing in those frequencies that are being preserved for hearing aid use is also unstable and likely to deteriorate as well... leaving the user with only partial electrode use. I know Med El is supposed to have a new array that does full insertion, but leaves the hair cells intact. Not sure how effective that is.

Before my own implant, I was holding on to my hearing aid. I was afraid that I was going to regret giving up what I already had, particularly since my physician was recommending I implant my "good" ear instead of my "bad" ear like I had figured I would do. My reality is my implant is far beyond what my hearing with a hearing aid ever was.

Most CI/Hearing aid users.. at least AB ones, seem to report approaching hearing with their CI being the good ear that needs the least help while the aided ear is just to round it out. Further, they start thinking on drop kicking the aided ear for bilateral implants.
 
drphil said:
Hybrid "products" Hearing Aids & Cochlear Implant don't appear to make much sense. Dealing with different conditions, Deafness is not the same as having some problem with hearing.
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Depends on how you look at it. If you are a true candidate for a hybrid then you are both HoH AND deaf. Deaf in the frequencies to be implanted, HoH in the frequencies to be aided. While SoundRecover is a great first step to allow people with steeply sloping losses to perceive high frequency sounds, it makes a mess of how they perceive it. If you are a musician then being able to hear in low frequencies and being deaf in high frequencies doesn't get you anywhere because you need to be able to hear exactly what you need to hear, not compressed, not distorted, not with bits missing. I think that is a comment based on the way we understand implants to be now, not the way we could understand the development of implant technology - if people have a profound loss but it's only across half of the audiogram why go to a special effort to exclude them from the technology because it's "Not for the Likes of Them"?

I have to presume there is a market for the product or it wouldn't be for sale. I don't think companies are looking for ways to spend money on unmarketable ventures in this economy, and ski-slope is one of the most common audiograms. One of the features they must address in the clinical trial data is the effect of repeat implant surgery if the person has a deterioration in hearing in future. Reasonably stable hearing is a requirement for candidacy, but the possibility has to be addresse.

I'm not currently an implant candidate, hybrid or otherwise, because of my high frequency "hearing". It's not usable hearing because it distorts and hurts and gives me crazy tinnitus and vertigo so it's clipped off using SoundRecover to avoid exposure. They would not allow me to voluntarily destroy that "hearing" in exchange for potentially usable hearing from an implant, but I'm interested in the progress of selective frequency implants. This is the easiest audiogram to hybrid, and it may never be possible to do any other such as reverse slopes becuase the high frequency is in the first turn of the cochlear. My dead area is a bit further down, but as my loss changes and progresses and technology moves forward there may be something in the pipeline. I know a lot of people with the right profile for a hybrid implant, though, and I'm interested on their behalf also.

I'm interested in the possibilities for a range of purposes, they recently reprogrammed a CI to use it to stablise balance in a patient with severe vertigo from Menieres. It's very, very early days of trials, but that's a huge development of the technology to use it for something totally unrelated to hearing.
 
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