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June 8, 2006
$10M music to UI's ears
Craig Watt was in his mid-20s when he first noticed he was losing his hearing. By the time he was 50, he could only recognize 20 to 30 percent of the words spoken to him. Today, Watt, 53, of Iowa City, has better than 90 percent word recognition, the result of a hybrid cochlear implant in his right ear that he received at University Hospitals in November 2004.
"It's a 100 percent difference in the one ear," said Watt, who did farm and factory work when he was younger but never wore hearing protection.
For 20 years, UI has been a leader in cochlear research, and of the 65 patients who have received the new implants nationwide, 23 have had the operation at University Hospitals.
On Wednesday, UI announced a grant renewal that will allow them to continue to help people improve their hearing. The Iowa Cochlear Implant Clinical Research Center has received a five-year, $10.3 million grant for ongoing research on cochlear implants for deaf children and adults.
The grant, from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, brings the total NIH funding at the ICICRC to $38 million over 25 years.
"We are probably the only center in the nation funded by the NIH to do this type of work," said Dr. Bruce Gantz, director of the ICICRC and head of Department of Otolaryngology -- Head and Neck Surgery.
Dr. Jean Robillard, dean of the UI Carver College of Medicine, said the money gives researchers reason to dream of eradicating deafness. The NIH estimates that 28 million Americans have some form of hearing loss, and the number is increasing as more people live longer.
"Maybe one day we will be able to give to everybody who has deafness a chance to hear the rest of their life," Robillard said.
The hybrid implant was developed at UI by research funded by the grant. It uses a combination of a hearing aid worn in the ear and a receiver implanted behind the ear that decodes information that the brain perceives as sound.
The first patients received the hybrids in 1999. UI is conducting a U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved trial that is ongoing and they plan to expand to young children.
Gantz said it is estimated that 300,000 to 400,000 Americans could benefit from standard cochlear implants, whereas 10 to 12 times that number could benefit from the hybrid.
Watt already is experiencing the advantage, and so is his family.
"Our conversations are half as long because I don't have to repeat things," said his wife, Janet, an environmental researcher at UI.
Watt, who has two adult children, now also is able to hear his 2-year-old granddaughter, Abbie.
"Which is another reason why I did this, to hear what she had to say," he said.
By Gregg Hennigan
http://www.press-citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060608/NEWS01/606080323/1079
Posted by 4HL on June 8, 2006 7:47 AM
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