This federal Project Grant award for $682,911.00 was provided by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) under the Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders program (CFDA 93.173). The grant aims to study the perceptual adaptation process that occurs in cochlear implant (CI) users after initial device activation, with the goal of improving speech perception and sound quality outcomes. The key research objectives include: Longitudinally...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) under CFDA 93.173 "Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders" is funding research at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) to investigate binaural integration of spectral and temporal information in individuals with hearing loss and hearing devices. The $662,162 award, effective April 4, 2025 through March 31, 2030, aims to address gaps in understanding...
The Project Grant award R21DC021516 for $150,617, provided by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) under the Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders program (CFDA 93.173), aims to improve the interpretation of hearing-related patient-reported outcomes for bilingual adults in audiology clinics. The key objectives are to: 1) identify how gradients of bilingualism interact with age to impact objective and subjective speech-in-noise...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), under the Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders program (CFDA 93.173), aims to investigate the potential of transcranial stimulation to enhance speech intelligibility and reduce listening effort in older adults struggling with speech-on-speech understanding. The $1,330,971 award to Trustees of Boston University will fund a 2-year exploratory study to determine if...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), under the federal Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders Program (CFDA 93.173), will support the development and assessment of shape-adaptive cochlear implant (CI) electrode arrays. The $277,057 award to Qualia Oto, Inc. aims to address the long-standing challenge of achieving both atraumatic insertion and optimal electrode positioning during cochlear implantation. The...
This $251,856 federal Project Grant award was made by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), under the Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders program (CFDA 93.173). The grant supports research on the neuroplasticity and adaptations that occur in the adult brain during early use of cochlear implants, an auditory neuroprosthetic device. The research aims to investigate how the brain coordinates these adaptations, with the goal of informing...
The National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), under the Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders federal grant program (CFDA 93.173), awarded a $377,700 Project Grant to The Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The 5-year grant, effective December 1, 2024, aims to develop and validate a clinical decision support tool using artificial intelligence and novel variables to predict cochlear implant speech perception performance. The research...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), under the Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders program (CFDA 93.173), provides $586,022 to the University of Texas at Austin to conduct research on the functional consequences of early childhood otitis media (OM). The overarching goal is to understand the residual effects of early childhood OM on the development of functional listening skills. The research will...
This Project Grant award from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), under the Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders Federal Grant Program (CFDA 93.173), provides $304,723 to Qualia Oto, Inc. to assess the viability of robotic-assisted, shape-conforming cochlear implant (CI) electrode arrays. The goal is to develop a new solution for achieving atraumatic cochlear implantation and optimal electrode positioning simultaneously. The project...
This $147,656 federal Project Grant awarded by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) under the Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders program (CFDA 93.173) will fund research to investigate how spatial and temporal auditory cues are integrated in normal hearing and single-sided deaf populations. The research aims to establish baseline measures of spatial biases on timing judgments in normal hearing adults and examine the effects of...
PATIENT-REPORTED BENEFITS OF COCHLEAR IMPLANT LISTENING CONFIGURATIONS - PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT UNILATERAL COCHLEAR IMPLANTATION IS THE STANDARD TREATMENT FOR ADULTS WITH BILATERAL MODERATE TO PROFOUND HEARING LOSS, AND IT IS ESTIMATED THAT UP TO 1.2 MILLION AMERICANS COULD BENEFIT FROM COCHLEAR IMPLANTS (CIS).1 BIMODAL HEARING (CI IN ONE EAR AND A HEARING AID IN THE CONTRALATERAL EAR) IS THE MOST COMMON CI LISTENING CONFIGURATION.2 YET, AN INCREASING NUMBER OF PATIENTS ARE PURSUING A SECOND CI.3 CURRENTLY, THERE ARE NO EVIDENCE-BASED CRITERIA FOR WHEN TO RECOMMEND A SECOND CI, RESULTING IN A COMMON CLINICAL DILEMMA: SHOULD THIS PATIENT CONTINUE USING BIMODAL HEARING, OR SHOULD A SECOND CI BE CONSIDERED (I.E., TRANSITION FROM BIMODAL HEARING TO BILATERAL CIS)? PREVIOUS ATTEMPTS TO PROVIDE EVIDENCE-BASED GUIDANCE ON THIS CLINICAL DILEMMA HAVE FOCUSED ON PERFORMANCE-BASED AUDITORY TASKS SUCH AS SPEECH RECOGNITION;4-7 HOWEVER, RECENT EVIDENCE SUGGESTS THAT PATIENT REPORT MAY HAVE GREAT UTILITY WHEN DETERMINING IF BIMODAL HEARING OR BILATERAL CIS IS RIGHT FOR A PARTICULAR PATIENT.6 DESPITE RECENT FINDINGS, THE PATIENT-REPORTED ADVANTAGES AND LIMITATIONS OF EACH LISTENING CONFIGURATION HAVE REMAINED UNDERSTUDIED, THUS LIMITING THE POTENTIAL ABILITY OF PATIENT-REPORT IN SOLVING THE ABOVEMENTIONED CLINICAL DILEMMA. OUR PRELIMINARY DATA DEMONSTRATES UNEXPLAINED PATIENT-REPORTED DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BIMODAL HEARING AND BILATERAL CIS, BUT THAT PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN INFORMATION REGARDING THE BENEFITS AND LIMITATIONS OF EACH LISTENING CONFIGURATION CAN BE UNCOVERED USING QUALITATIVE PATIENT INTERVIEWS. THUS, THE PRESENT STUDY AIMS TO DETERMINE THE PATIENT-REPORTED ADVANTAGES AND LIMITATIONS OF BIMODAL HEARING VERSUS BILATERAL CIS USING A MIXED METHODS APPROACH AND TWO RESEARCH DESIGNS (WITHIN-SUBJECT AND BETWEEN- SUBJECT). AIM 1 WILL COMPARE BIMODAL HEARING, BILATERAL CI, AND BILATERAL CANDIDATES (BIMODAL PATIENTS SCHEDULED TO RECEIVE A SECOND CI) USING CLINICALLY RELEVANT PATIENT-REPORT OUTCOME MEASURES (PROMS) AND RESULTS OF THEMATIC CODING OBTAINED FROM QUALITATIVE PATIENT INTERVIEWS. AIM 2 WILL FOLLOW BILATERAL CANDIDATES THROUGH THE PREOPERATIVE (BIMODAL HEARING) AND POSTOPERATIVE (BILATERAL CI) PHASES USING THE SAME MEASURES DESCRIBED IN AIM 1 AND WILL ASSESS CHANGES IN PATIENT-REPORT ACROSS THE TWO TIMEPOINTS. OUR PRELIMINARY DATA DEMONSTRATES THE FEASIBILITY OF THIS PROJECT AND SUPPORTS OUR CENTRAL HYPOTHESIS, THAT PATIENT REPORTING CAN OFFER VALUABLE INFORMATION ABOUT EACH LISTENING CONFIGURATION THAT CAN AID IN DIFFERENTIATING THE ADVANTAGES AND LIMITATIONS OF BIMODAL HEARING AND BILATERAL CIS. THE LONG-TERM GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO EQUIP CLINICIANS WITH AN EVIDENCE- BASED APPROACH TO COUNSELING BIMODAL PATIENTS ON THE MOST BENEFICIAL LISTENING CONFIGURATION DETERMINED BY INDIVIDUAL NEEDS AND EXPECTATIONS. THE PROPOSED PROJECT WILL PROVIDE HANDS-ON TRAINING IN MIXED METHODS RESEARCH, ADVANCED STATISTICAL ANALYSES AND INTERPRETATION, AND HELP PI LEWIS ESTABLISH A UNIQUE LINE OF CLINICALLY RELEVANT RESEARCH, THUS PREPARING HER FOR A POST-DOCTORAL POSITION AT AN ACADEMIC INSTITUTION.