Ongoing Support and Future Promise
At MED-EL, we place a premium on customer service, working diligently to deliver the fastest and most courteous professional service in the industry. We also believe we offer the best selection of support materials. Our BRIDGE to Better Communication program has quickly gained popularity and respect as a leader in rehabilitation and support services worldwide.
Going forward, we are dedicated to offering more technological enhancements than ever before. More than three decades ago, MED-EL’s founders, Drs. Erwin and Ingeborg Hochmair, who continues to serve as our CEO, developed the world’s first multi-channel cochlear implant. Today, our research efforts offer great promise for the future of bilateral implantation, completely implantable devices and drug delivery methods for regeneration of nerve cells.
It is a primary goal of MED-EL to maintain a strong commitment to medical research, cochlear implant technology, and the needs of those with hearing loss. MED-EL is currently sponsoring on-going research studies in many fields, including:
Adult and pediatric bilateral implantation :: Use of a cochlear implant in both ears, as opposed to just one ear, is intended to provide better speech understanding in noise and the ability to determine where a sound originated.
Electric Acoustic Stimulation (EAS)* :: MED-EL is currently researching combined stimulation through a hearing aid and a cochlear implant in the same ear. This research concept is intended for patients with residual hearing in the low frequencies and may provide improved performance over a hearing aid or cochlear implant in isolation.
Hearing preservation :: Research has shown that MED-EL electrode arrays provide the safest design for preservation of cochlear anatomy. MED-EL is studying the benefits of an even softer electrode array and specific surgical protocol designed for greater hearing preservation.
Implantable Middle-Ear Prosthetics :: MED-EL manufactures the VIBRANT SOUNDBRIDGE® – an implantable middle ear prosthetic intended to treat moderate sensorineural hearing loss. MED-EL is currently researching the potential of this device to treat conductive and mixed hearing loss**.
