...Cochlear Implant Essay Jeanie Partlow HCA/COMM 270A The Context and Language of Health Care Randi White Warner Pacific College April 30, 2012 Cochlear Implant Essay A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted device that provides electrical stimulation to the auditory nerve in the inner ear. The device has internal and external components. The external parts consist of a microphone, a speech processor, and a transmitter. The internal parts include a receiver and electrodes. The external speech processor captures sound, converts it to digital code that is transmitted to the internal electrodes, and finally, communicated to the brain for interpretation as sound. Good candidates for the cochlear implant have profound bilateral sensorineural hearing impairment and functional auditory nerves. Three groups of patients that have the greatest potential success include post-lingually deaf adults, pre-lingually deaf children, and post-lingually impaired people (usually children) who have lost hearing due to diseases such as meningitis. Tyler, Fryauf-Bertschy, Kelsay, Gantz, Woodworth, Parkinson (1997) confirm pre-lingually deaf children are excellent candidates as they obtain the implant during the time that the brain is developing and highly functional in adapting to sensory input. The cochlear device is implanted behind the ear where the surgeon will create a pocket in the mastoid bone for the receiver. The electrode array is then placed through the inner ear into the cochlea...
Words: 408 - Pages: 2
...report will examine Cochlear Limited, an Australian company trading on the ASX (COH). The most recent annual report available is for financial year 2010-2011, which ended on 31 July 2011. Questions Q 1. a. Provide a description of your company and its core business activity. Cochlear Limited (COH) is a manufacturer and marketer of cochlear implants which offer solutions to address different types of hearing impairment. Cochlear is the global leader in implantable hearing solutions. Cochlear has a global team of more than 2,500 people who deliver the gift of sound to the hearing impaired in over 100 countries around the world. b. What industry does your company operate in? Operating in the Health Care sector of the Health Care Equipment & Services industry, c. Name one competitor of your company. COH has approximately 70% market share for cochlear implants, which are funded by government health authorities and charities. Currently the major competitors of COH are Swiss hearing aid company Sonova and Med El is another competitor in European and US markets. d. List the countries/areas in which your firm operates. With direct operations in more than 20 countries, COH distributes into over 100 countries with a focus on the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe, Middle East and Africa. e. In which country/area does your company make most of its profit? The majority of Cochlear profits are made in...
Words: 3227 - Pages: 13
...rather view it as a distinct culture that is not in need of rehabilitation; however, cochlear implants allow a deaf child to grow up in a hearing world. Allowing a child the opportunity to hear will allow them to have several benefits compared to a life without having the opportunity to hear (McKee, Schlehofer, & Thew, 2013). Such benefits include having an increase in the child’s language development (Dettman, Pinder, Briggs, Dowell & Leigh, 2007), having an improvement in peer relationships (Martin, Bat-Chava, Lalwani, & Waltzman, 2011), and having an improvement in the child’s overall quality of life (Schorr, Roth, & Fox, 2009). The first benefit a child could experience with the use of cochlear...
Words: 1336 - Pages: 6
...Cochlear implants are one of the many topics included in the vast collection of things arguable in today's media and social setting. There are endless accounts of opinions and views that go on inevitably, unfortunately. And the bickering throughout the hearing community, as well as the deaf community, continues. Some people think cochlear implants are substantially terrific and that the heavens must have graciously blessed them so that their particular child could "be normal". But others refuse the whole idea of cochlear implants being an acceptable notion. But, I propose a question: since when is it a bad thing to be deaf? The deaf people I have encountered are glorified and everybody wants to know them and learn sign language just to interact...
Words: 1831 - Pages: 8
...A cochlear implant is a medical device that is implanted into the head behind the ear of a deaf person. It is very different from a hearing aid. Hearing aids magnify sounds so damaged ears may identify them. Cochlear implants escape damaged areas of the ear and activate the auditory nerve directly. Signals made by the implant are sent from the auditory nerve to the brain, which recognizes the signals as sound. Hearing through a cochlear implant is not the same as normal hearing and takes time and practice to learn or relearn. On the other hand, it allows many people to identify warning signals, recognize other noises in the surroundings, and enjoy a talk in person or by phone.(National Institute on Deafness, 1) When the device was first developed...
Words: 714 - Pages: 3
...HCA 210 | Health Care Innovation | Cochlear Implants | Joseph Fortescue 12/22/2013 | In every country and culture there are people who suffer from hearing loss. Sometimes it is classified as conductive hearing loss where for some reason the sound waves are being blocked; which can usually be fixed with surgery. The majority of people who suffer from hearing loss have damage to the nerves that carry sounds to the brain. That is called sensorineural hearing loss; and there are new innovative ways to help those suffering from sensoineural hearing loss. Hearing aids were invented to help damaged nerves carry sound by amplifying the sound with a microphone. That only helps those who are hard of hearing; if you amplify sound to a deaf person they still cannot hear it. The cochlear implant however, does not amplify sound; it uses electromagnetic pulses to stimulate cells in the cochlea that activate the auditory nerve. This process bypasses the damaged nerves that receive sound waves, which for the majority of the time are the cause of hearing loss. I have heard about cochlear implants for a while now and wondered about the difference in quality of hearing after surgery. The cochlear implant picks up sound and transmits it through electromagnetic pulses so is there a possibility that the sounds get distorted in the process. Since it is not the traditional method of hearing maybe the sounds are not the same either. The patient has to go through habilitation to get used...
Words: 762 - Pages: 4
...One study compared fixed and Dynamic FM performance for hearing aid users, while the other made the same comparison with cochlear implant recipients. In the hearing aid study, conducted by Dr. Linda Thibodeau, both adults and children (ages 11 tol5) were used as subjects, and both objective and subjective measures were taken. The objective comparisons were conducted in a large classroom, with the interfering noises - ranging from 54 dB to 80 dB - emanating from four speakers located in the corners of the room. The FM microphone was placed six inches from another loudspeaker located in the center of the room. The goal was to create a situation where someone would talk into an FM microphone while the listener was surrounded by changing levels of ambient noises. For the subjective comparisons, the subjects tried both the fixed and the adaptive systems at home and during activities in a public aquarium. As expected, the objective results show no difference between the two systems at low noise levels. This is because the adaptive feature is not triggered until the background noise level exceeds 57 dB. But as the noise level increased, the speech perception scores increased with the adaptive system only, reaching a maximum difference of about 50 percent at the higher noise levels. Across all noise levels, the average difference between the fixed and the adaptive systems was about 25 percent. Subjectively, too, most or all (depending upon the activity) of the subjects preferred the...
Words: 662 - Pages: 3
...Graeme Clark Graeme Milbourne Clark was born August 16 1935 in Camden, New South Wales. He was an important figure in the development of the cochlear implant and now works as a doctor. He was educated at The Scots College and studied medicine at the Sydney University. He has been awarded the Lasker - DeBakey award, Senior Australian Of The Year as well as the James Cook medal just to name a few. Cochlear Implants A cochlear implant is a medical device that essentially does the job of the damaged parts of the inner ear (cochlea) and sends sound signals to the brain (cochlear implant – a device that can be surgically placed into a person’s cochlea to give them the ability to hear things.). Graeme Clark and a team of scientists worked together in Melbourne, 1970 to create the cochlear implant. It was 1966 when Graeme left an ear, nose and throat practice in Melbourne to research at the University of Sydney on how the brain would respond to electrical stimulation for coding sound. He then continued his work at the University of Melbourne before a clinical trial in Melbourne was successful. In 1985 the first multiple – channel cochlear implant was approved by the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration). The Advantages Cochlear implants have impacted society...
Words: 515 - Pages: 3
...speech. Mixed hearing loss is a combination of conductive and sensorineural. Central hearing loss is a problem in the central nervous system involving the inability to interpret sound. Functional hearing loss is caused by an emotional or psychological factor in which there is no physical finding of hearing loss (Lewis et al., 2011) Mosby and Elsevier (2009) (Crusse & Kent, 2013). To determine the type of hearing loss, type of hearing device needed and proper fit, there are different doctors with different levels of education a person can see. Choosing a correct hearing specialist is important. An Audiologist can identify and access hearing disorders. They can also select and correctly fit hearing aids. Audiologists can also program cochlear implants and provide counseling services, rehab and instruction on device usage. An Audiologist is required to have a doctorate or masters degree. A Hearing Aid Specialist can access, select, fit and dispense hearing aids. The can also instruct rehabilitation and counsel in use and care of hearing aids. A certification by the National Board of Certification in Hearing Aid Sciences is...
Words: 2020 - Pages: 9
... neuromuscular dis- orders, and amputees. These are patients for whom, until now, the field of neurosurgery has not been able to offer any substantive intervention. Moreover, these populations are increasing in size and relevance because of the aging population and improved survival after stroke and trauma. It is important to distinguish the emerging nature of these output BCIs, or devices that convert human intentions to overt device con- trol, from those that translate external stimuli such as light or sound into internally per- ceived visual or auditory perceptions (i.e., in- put BCIs). There has been a rich and extensive experience in the sensory prosthetic field. To date, the most successful example of a sensory prosthetic is the cochlear implant....
Words: 699 - Pages: 3
...Cochlear Limited Analysis Introduction This report will examine Cochlear Limited, an Australian company trading on the ASX (COH). The most recent annual report available is for financial year 2010-2011, which ended on 31 July 2011. Questions Q 1. a. Provide a description of your company and its core business activity. Cochlear Limited (COH) is a manufacturer and marketer of cochlear implants which offer solutions to address different types of hearing impairment. Cochlear is the global leader in implantable hearing solutions. Cochlear has a global team of more than 2,500 people who deliver the gift of sound to the hearing impaired in over 100 countries around the world. b. What industry does your company operate in? Operating in the Health Care sector of the Health Care Equipment & Services industry, c. Name one competitor of your company. COH has approximately 70% market share for cochlear implants, which are funded by government health authorities and charities. Currently the major competitors of COH are Swiss hearing aid company Sonova and Med El is another competitor in European and US markets. d. List the countries/areas in which your firm operates. With direct operations in more than 20 countries, COH distributes into over 100 countries with a focus on the Americas, Asia Pacific, and Europe, Middle East and Africa. e. In which country/area does your company make most of its profit? The majority...
Words: 298 - Pages: 2
...Cochlear Implants: Beyond the success of the cochlear implant With the rapid medical development and the continuous technological improvement, there is an obvious increase in the tendency to receive cochlear implants for the deaf children. In deaf culture, there are two terms we can use to understand their identity by spelling the word "deaf" with big D or with little d. Generally Dwight Sutton, an Internal Medicine doctor, states that deaf people consider "Deaf" as the category who was usually was born deaf and choose to remain part of to the Deaf community but deaf group with lower case “d” is mostly lost their hearing after their birth and but prefer to engage the hearing people(Sutton et al. 225). According to National Institute on Deafness...
Words: 695 - Pages: 3
...The Silent Society: Being Deaf Deafhood and Epistemology When considering the epistemology of deafness, one must consider the history of how deafness has evolved. The history of deafness comes from the ignorance of those who could not understand how people who had a disability were different from them. It was easier to place these types of “folks” in intuitions and not deal with their needs. Understanding the deaf community comes through understanding the culture and the history that allows the deaf to have a “voice” and provide them with the necessary services that make the deaf more human. Through mental health, hearing assessments, and trauma, there is an understanding that even though they may not live in the hearing world, there are still apart of society. How they function as a community is important, as they too have a voice. Deafhood is described as “static”, not a medical condition; however, it is a process-a struggle that is endured by every child, adult, and family to explain themselves, and each other their own existence within their world (Hauser, O’Hearn, Steider, &Thew, 2010). Epistemology can be defined as the philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits to human knowledge. When dealing with deaf epistemology, there are many facets to which it can be understood and misunderstood. The authors discuss the visual learning process that a Deaf child goes through by being raised by either a Deaf parent or a hearing parent....
Words: 3079 - Pages: 13
...EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Volatile Ltd. plans to invest $1 million in purchasing a parcel of share from one of the two considered target companies, Cochlear Ltd. and Sonic Healthcare Ltd. As the members of the “Investment Panel” of the company, we analyse various investment opportunities and make recommendations. This report firstly analyse the background of the two target companies. Both of the companies belong to healthcare industry. After industry and economic background analysis, we find that even though the economic was suffered a great loss after the global financial crisis, the healthcare industry was not influenced a lot. While doing the risk analysis, we divide it into three parts which are operational risk, strategic risk and financial risk. We found that although COH is facing several challenge, it has a better and more stable performance in the three aspects compares to SHL. Therefore, we recommend purchasing share of COH. 1. INTRODUCTION This report is aim to give analysis for investment decision between Cochlear Ltd. and Sonic Healthcare Ltd. The background of the companies, industry and economic will be assessed first. Furthermore, we will analyse two companies’ operational risk, strategic risk and financial risk. Finally, we will make recommendation base on the research. 2. BACKGROUND 3.1. COMPANY BACKGROUND Cochlear Ltd. (refer to COH in this report) was established in 1985 and listed in Australia in 1995. The company focuses on the development of implantable...
Words: 1775 - Pages: 8
...Communication 389 CSULA Summer 2014 ICC Artifact Two 7/27/14 ICC Artifact assignment: The Cochlear Implant Controversy According to our text in Chapter 7 Nonverbal code and cultural space there are certain aspects of the culture and its relationship to nonverbal activity. Personal–contextual and the static–dynamic dia- lectics. Although nonverbal communication can be highly dynamic, personal space, gestures, and facial expressions are fairly static patterns of specific non- verbal communication codes. Their interpretation will vary depending upon its context and culture that it is being communicated to. The chapter talks about how different the dynamics of intercultural nonverbal communication are across different cultural groups. In this ICC artifact assignment we will examine and look at the topic of The Cochlear implant controversy. The controversy involves the scientific hearing assistance breakthrough device for the deaf community, and whether or not its use and development will be the ultimate removal of and extinction of the deaf community as a culture. The following essay will examine the relevance and truth to this argument and examine the negative and positive manifestations to the Deaf culture from the development and use of the Cochlear Implant itself. The Chapter talks about several research findings about nonverbal communication. Research investigating the universality of nonverbal communication has focused on four areas: (1) the relationship...
Words: 1196 - Pages: 5
