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Incredible Internal Cochlear Implants on the Way as Massachusetts Engineers Overcame All Obstacles
By Andy CorbleyJul 8, 2024
Biotech engineers have developed the first entirely internal cochlear implant that will allow users to move, exercise, swim, and enjoy a full range of human activities without worrying about external hardware.
This external hardware typically sits on top of the ear or around the head and prohibits all manner of vigorous activities—including sleep, since the device presses against the soft bones of the temple.
Despite these hindrances, cochlear implants are one of the most widely-used pieces of biotech on Earth, and have allowed over one million people to hear the world around them.
This doesn’t just include older people whose hearing has gone, but infants born deaf or hard of hearing who desperately need noise, particularly human voices, for normal social and educational development.
But because infants don’t realize the importance of the implant for their development, they’re liable to try and fiddle, or remove entirely, the external hardware, and with no other option, parents and physicians have to apply medical tape or childproof headgear that prevents them from removing it.
To try and remove this burden from all cochlear users, researchers at MIT, Massachusetts Eye and Ear, Harvard Medical School, and Columbia University have pioneered the first cochlear implant that’s entirely surgically inserted.
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Incredible Internal Cochlear Implants on the Way as Massachusetts Engineers Overcame All Obstacles
The external hardware typically sits on top of the ear or around the head and prohibits all manner of vigorous activities—including sleep
www.goodnewsnetwork.org
