Cochlear CI to Incorporate Phonak FM System

Editor: Cochlear Corporation and Phonak recently announced that they would work together to provide Phonak FM systems on Cochlear Corporation CIs. Hearing aid users who use these FM systems often rave about their effectiveness, so it seems like a natural extension for cochlear implants. Here's the press release.

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Phonak AG, Switzerland's number one manufacturer of technologically advanced hearing systems, recently signed an agreement for the global distribution of Phonak's miniaturized FM (Frequency Modulation) radio communication equipment via Cochlear Limited (Cochlear), the world's leading cochlear implant manufacturer.

"The collaboration between two world leaders in the race for optimum hearing solutions is a major step forward," said Peter Pfluger, CEO of the Phonak Group, "We firmly believe that a majority of cochlear implant patients could benefit greatly from FM technology and are delighted that we now offer that benefit as a team together with Cochlear Ltd.

"The agreement with Cochlear confirms our FM technology as the industry standard; it further raises its awareness in the ENT doctors' community and reinforces Phonak's position as the key player in this important segment," he said.

Mr Jack O'Mahony, President/Chief Executive Officer of Cochlear said this agreement demonstrates Cochlear's commitment to provide cutting edge technology for Nucleus recipients.

"As we continue to help more severely and profoundly hearing impaired children and adults, we know we must make it easier for them to lead a rich and fulfilling life in the hearing world. This agreement will provide benefits to our more than 30000 Nucleus recipients today and pave the way for successful outcomes for many more recipients in the future."

"Our mission is to be partners in hearing for life and this agreement is another improvement in the service we offer our recipients, their careers and teachers. As the application of FM technology for the hearing impaired is still evolving, we do not anticipate a significant material effect on revenues in the short term, but anticipate this technology will be a key element in future cochlear implant systems", he said.

Phonak FM products will be available via Cochlear's distribution network from the middle of 2001, and offered to cochlear implant patients to further enhance their hearing ability by means of state- of-the-art wireless communication technology.

The distribution agreement will provide Nucleus recipients with a proven integrated hearing solution, comprising implant, speech processor and wireless technology in more than 55 countries. Clinicians, hearing professionals and recipients will benefit by Cochlear providing a single reference point for technical support of this integrated system. In the future, Phonak's miniaturized MicroLink receivers will be directly integrated with Cochlear's speech processors - making the integrated solution even more attractive for cochlear recipients.

More than 30,000 people around the world already use a "Nucleus" cochlear implant, developed and manufactured by Cochlear and more than 6,000 new implant operations are performed each year. Over 50% of the candidates for a cochlear implantation are children.

As all hearing impaired individuals, cochlear recipients also struggle when they attempt to listen to competing conversations (for example in business meetings), in reverberating rooms (conference halls or restaurants) or when the speaker may be some distance away (for example, children in classrooms).

Phonak's range of wireless products (MicroVox, HandyMic transmitters and MicroLink receivers) helps overcome these challenges. These products improve the speech intelligibility by picking up the clearest possible signal directly at the source (i.e. the speaker's voice, a television, a phone etc.) and transmitting it wirelessly to a miniaturized receiver. This receiver delivers a high quality signal directly into the hearing instrument (for hearing-impaired people) or the speech processor (for cochlear implant recipients).

FM technology was traditionally used in special schools for hearing impaired children, where the teacher's voice is sent from a body-worn FM transmitter directly to a receiver clicked onto the child's hearing device. In this way the noise surrounding the teacher's voice is significantly decreased. The continuing improvements in this technology have made it possible that a large proportion of the hearing impaired children can now be educated in a normal mainstream school environment.

Similarly, children implanted with a Nucleus implant will now also benefit from this technology. The advent of FM technology and the trend to implant younger children means that more children with a Nucleus implant will now be educated in a normal classroom environment where they are learning with hearing peers.

The technology is also designed to provide improved understanding of speech for hearing-impaired adults. The HandyMic TX3 allows users to "zoom" in on individuals or groups of individuals in meetings or large settings. In the home environment, future products will allow a hearing impaired individual or a Nucleus recipient to receive high quality sound directly from the telephone or the television - fed into their hearing instrument or speech processor through the wireless FM link.