The story of this Austrian medical technology firm begins at Vienna Technical University more than 50 years ago, and MED-EL has been producing pioneering innovations and refining its technology ever since, improving the lives and lived experience of countless people with hearing loss. They have now unveiled the world’s first and only invisible cochlear implant, all the components of which are located entirely beneath the skin.
With mild to moderate hearing loss, traditional hearing aids are used to amplify vibrations to make sounds louder, but this is insufficient to address more severe forms of hearing impairment; it is here that cochlear implants come into play, bypassing the damaged portions of the inner ear and directly triggering the auditory nerve. Sounds are detected by a receiver and transmitted to the implant, which stimulates the cochlea with electric signals. The auditory nerve then transports these signals to the brain, where they are processed and perceived as sound.
Ingeborg and Erwin Hochmair, the founders of MED-EL, a family-owned Austria company, began developing cochlear implants in 1975; the first was surgically fitted in 1977 and all modern implants have been based on this pioneering device to this day. The ambition to create an implant that was completely invisible from the outside was formulated as an objective at an early stage; the researchers were convinced that such an option would not only be aesthetically more pleasing but would also have positive psychological benefits in particular. Suitable batteries and microphones were long just the stuff of dreams, however – when a sensor was sited under the skin, for example, the sound would change, and constructing a unit that could address this proved the greatest challenge.
After no less than 15 years of research and development, MED-EL are now proud to present the first cochlear implant to be located entirely subcutaneously. Some 40 patients round the world already benefit from the device and the first to be fitted outside a research study was recently surgically implanted. For those affected by hearing loss, the new implant represents a further step towards autonomy, freedom and quality of life, as the product can be worn at night and underwater, and remains completely operational even while the battery is charging.
MED-EL has won this year’s TRIGOS award (the Austrian prize for corporate social responsibility) for the firm’s international engagement in delivering projects in developing and emerging countries. This has involved a holistic effort to enhance hearing healthcare systems with a focus on training, early diagnosis and accessible knowledge-sharing. MED-EL’s ambition to overcome hearing loss as a barrier to communication and to improve the quality of patients’ lives is thus being pursued on an international scale.
