Though cochlear implants (CI’s) are an effective medical treatment for many adults living with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss, conservative estimates suggest that 1 in 20 adults worldwide who could benefit from a cochlear implant have one.
The world’s first international consensus on cochlear implant treatment for adults* was published in JAMA Otolaryngology. The paper was authored by 31 hearing experts assisted by cochlear implant user and professional advocacy organisations. The publication is a major step forward in clarifying when CI’s are a treatment option for adults, and a timely call to policymakers, insurance funding bodies as well as health professionals to better understand the importance of providing access to CI treatment for those who could benefit.
In this second series of webinars, commencing with the first event on January 29th, you will have the opportunity to hear from a diverse multi-disciplinary panel of experts from around the world, discussing the findings and recommendations from the consensus paper, as well as the real world barriers and facilitators to access and equity for adult CI. Webinars will be presented by leading experts in the field of CI from around the world and will include the participation of patients.
Intended audience – these webinars are open to all hearing health professionals, CI teams, CI users, advocacy groups and healthcare commissioners. The webinars will be captioned.
2021 Webinars
Watch the recordings from the second CI Futures Forum series by clicking below.
CI Futures Forum: Consensus Towards Standard of Care
In every country access to cochlear implantation (CI) for adults with severe or profound hearing loss is low. Globally, it is estimated that only one in twenty who could benefit from cochlear implants have one. Most other health treatments have internationally accepted standards of care that inform patients and health care practitioners about when specialist referrals and treatment options should be considered.
Watch the presentations from this webinar here
Chair: Gerard O'Donoghue (Nottingham)
Presenters: Professor Wu Hao (CN), Professor Seung Ha Oh (KR), Professor Pu Dai (CN), Associate Professor Jenny Loo (SG), Dr Kuang Chao (Joshua) Chen (TW), Dr Kalyani Mandke (IN)
CI Futures Forum: Awareness of Cochlear Implantation
Lack of referral pathways to CI leads to a substantial unnecessary burden to the individual with hearing loss, with a poorer quality of life. We know that a lack of referral and awareness of the benefits of cochlear implantation are the major reasons for under-identification of the many who could benefit.
Watch the presentations from this webinar here
Chair: Brian Kaplan (Maryland)
Presenters: Regina Presley (US), Howard Francis (US), Barbara Kelley (US), Rene Gifford (US), Matthew L. Carlson (US), Allison Biever (US)
CI Futures Forum: Best Practice Clinical Pathway for Diagnosis
Screening for hearing loss in adults is important for the identification of potential candidates for cochlear implantation. Clearer and appropriate criteria for diagnosis of those who may be a candidate for cochlear implants will help create a clear pathway to implantation and improve understanding of the benefits and appropriateness of CIs by health professionals and the general public.
Watch the presentations from this webinar here
Chair: Michal Luntz
Presenters: Leo De Raeve, Ulriche Hoppe, Shakeel Saeed, Emmanuel A.M. Mylanus, Laura Turton, Christophe Vincent
CI Futures Forum: World Report on Hearing
This webinar featured presentations from a diverse multidisciplinary panel of experts. The panel discussed the recommendations from the WHO World Report on Hearing Published March 3rd 2021.
This report will have collected information from all its member countries on good and poor practices related to hearing loss at the international and national levels.
Watch the presentations from this webinar here
Chair: Catherine McMahon
Presenters: Mahmood F Bhutta, Peter Thorne, Susan D Emmett, Carrie L. Nieman, Katherine Bouton
CI Futures Forum: Clinical Effectiveness of CIs
CIs are effective in improving quality of life due to improved hearing, and the wider impacts of better communication and connection with the world.
This webinar will feature presentations from a diverse multi disciplinary panel of experts. The panel will present real world examples from their own perspective and experience as well as discussing the recommendations from the Consensus paper.
Watch the presentations from this webinar here
Chair: Nic Russel
Presenters: Tatsuya Yamasoba, Jeeyeon Lee, Milind V. Kirtane, Byung Yoon Choi, Cathy Birman, Holly Teagle
CI Futures Forum: The Relationship Between Hearing Loss and Depression, Cognition and Dementia
Addressing hearing loss is associated with improvements in overall wellbeing including mental health by enabling people to communicate more easily with others. This reduces the social isolation and mental health problems associated with hearing loss. Addressing untreated hearing loss improves cognition and may help reduce the risk of dementia.
This webinar will feature presentations from a diverse multi disciplinary panel of experts. The panel will present real world examples from their own perspective and experience as well as discussing the recommendations from the Consensus paper.
Watch the presentations from this webinar here
Chair: Gerard O'Donoghue
Presenters: Craig Buchman, Frank Lin, Dakota Bysouth-Young, Isabelle Mosnier, Robert Mandara
CI Futures Forum: Cost Implications of CIs
Ensuring that people with hearing loss who could benefit from a CI receive one is not only beneficial for the individual’s wellbeing but improves their chances of employment. This reduces the cost of social care and welfare budgets. It is a cost effective intervention for health systems and has the potential to save money on other health related costs.
Watch the presentations from this webinar here
Chair: Pádraig Kitterick
Presenters: Brian Lamb, Helen Cullington, Henry Cutler, Ann-Marie Dickinson and Megan Quilter
2020 Webinars
Watch the recordings from the first CI Futures Forum series by clicking below.
Reconfiguring CI services: the ‘new normal’
Covid-19 has necessitated that many patient pathways to be reconfigured due to social distancing as well as personal protective considerations for patients and staff. In this seminar we will consider the patient experience, the public health implications of Covid-19 for hearing healthcare professionals, surgery and anaesthesia risks, and organisational changes needed within a service to facilitate recovery of clinical activity.
Watch the presentations from this webinar here.
Chair: Gerard O’Donoghue (Nottingham)
Presenters: Katherine Bouton (US), Frank Lin (US), Bruce Gantz (US), Thomas Roland (US), Douglas Hartley (UK), Thomas Lenarz (DE), Robert Briggs (AU)
No touch CI pathways: will Covid-19 drive innovation?
The need to maintain social distancing during the pandemic has required clinical services to restrict ‘face to face’ contact episodes and thus remote care may become a necessity. We begin with the patient experience and then draw on the field of remote hearing-aid fitting prior to considering clinical experience with cochlear implants. Could intraoperative cochlear neurophysiology inform this approach? We will then consider how the domain of artificial intelligence could be transformative in enabling the wider adoption of remote care.
Watch the presentations from this webinar here.
Chair: Helen Cullington (Southampton)
Presenters: Patrizia DiGiovanni (AU), DeWet Swanepoel (SA), Frederic Venail (FR), Stephen O’Leary (AU), Michelle Kraskin (US), Colleen Psarros (AU), R Ranjith (IN), Paul Govaerts (BE)
Assuring Early CI Intervention Post-Covid-19
Outcomes from paediatric cochlear implantation depend on the quality of early intervention and habilitation services to minimise the deleterious effects of auditory deprivation. We plan to start the webinar with the account of a parent’s experience accessing hearing healthcare for their child during Covid-19 and will then examine how the pandemic disrupted hearing screening programmes and imposed delays to the referral pathways for early intervention. We will consider the barriers clinicians encountered and what strategies worked to recover services.
Watch the presentations from this webinar here.
Chair: Catherine McMahon (Sydney)
Presenters: Hannah Cooper (UK), Carolina Leal (UK), Christine Yoshinaga-Itano (US), Blake Papsin (CA), Kevin Franck (US), Lise Henderson (UK)
Global Responses of CI Services to Covid-19
The impact of Covid-19 on health-care systems varies considerably and no country, whether high- or low- income has been spared the challenges. Ultimately, all pandemics become local as it falls to local professionals to find solutions that work for the population they serve. Here, we learn from colleagues around the world who have grappled with these challenges and found ways to overcome them that will be of interest to the global cochlear implant community.
Watch the presentations from this webinar here.
Chair: Howard Francis (Durham)
Presenters: Daniel Lee (US), Pu Dai (CN), Neelam Vaid (IN), George Tavartkiladze (RU), Valeria Goffi (BR), Michael Tong (HK), Gaetano Paludetti (IT)
CI Research at a Distance: a Post-Covid challenge
Translational research has driven progress in cochlear implantation. As well as disrupting clinical services, the manner in which research is prioritised, commissioned and executed will change very significantly post-Covid19. What is the appearance of this new research landscape and how should cochlear implant professionals adapt themselves for it? The webinar will consider what the key research priorities for CI now are and how research platforms may be mobilized to address them.
Watch the presentations from this webinar here.
Chair: Deborah Vickers (Cambridge)
Presenters: Bradley Welling (US), Kevin Munro (UK), Rachel Haines (UK), Teresa Ching (AU), Rene Gifford (US), Dan Jiang (UK), Youri Maryn (BE), Jay Rubinstein (US)