Cochlear Limited

Christopher Joseph Long

Zachary Mark Smith

Robert P Carlyon

Peter Gibson

Daniel M Lisogurski

Paul Michael Carter

Joerg Pesch

Christoper Van Den Honert

Werner Meskens

Koen Van Den Heuvel

Sean Lineaweaver

Christopher Van Den Honert

Jan Raymond Janssen

Erika J Van Baelen

Adam Schindhelm

Ishan Ann Tsay

Lakshmish Ramanna

Presented herein are techniques for assessing one or more outcomes associated with implantation of one or more electrodes into the inner ear of a recipient.

Inner ear electrode implantation outcome assessment

A method including reducing a stimulation artifact of an implantable stimulator including a plurality of stimulating electrodes by obtaining respective information on respective artifact voltages at a first location resulting from stimulation by one electrode group or respective electrode groups of the implanted stimulator and determining an adjustment regime based on the obtained information that results in a reduction of the stimulation artifact at the first location relative to that which would be the case in the absence of the regime.

Stimulation management

Presented herein are techniques for preservation/retention of binaural cues in a bilateral system, such as a bilateral hearing/auditory prosthesis system. The bilateral system comprises first and second bilateral prostheses, each of which includes an automatic gain control (AGC) system. The first and second bilateral prostheses communicate with one another over a AGC update channel/link to exchange AGC updates in a power-efficient manner.

Binaural cue preservation in a bilateral system

Presented herein are techniques for determining an arrangement of complex stimulation channels to optimally distribute sensory information across the channels of a multi-channel tissue-stimulating prosthesis. A tissue-stimulating prosthesis may initially be associated with a set of complex stimulation channels. A stimulation efficiency is determined for each complex stimulation channel within the set of complex stimulation channels. A first complex stimulation channel from the set of complex stimulation channels that has an associated stimulation efficiency that is below a stimulation efficiency limit is identified. The first complex stimulation channel is combined with an adjacent/neighboring complex stimulation channel to create a combined complex stimulation channel. The combined complex stimulation channel replaces both the first complex stimulation channel and the adjacent complex stimulation channel within the set of complex stimulation channels.

Complex stimulation channel arrangements

A medical device, comprising first and second components coupled via a first wireless link; and a third component coupled to the first device via a second wireless link. The device implements a communication scheme in which transmissions via the second wireless link occur during a time period that is interleaved between periods including transmissions via the first link.

Wireless communications in medical devices

Assessment of neuron excitation is implemented by quantifying the interaction between focused and unfocused stimulation applied to a cochlear array. By applying focused and unfocused stimulation to the electrode array and comparing the difference in the responses to the two types of stimulation the interaction may be determined. The magnitude of the interaction may be related to neural excitation and using this data a neural excitation profile may be determined.

Using interaction to measure neural excitation

Neural survival related to a cochlear implant may be assessed by determining stimulus efficacy for both focused and unfocused stimulation at a plurality of locations adjacent nerve tissue; and comparing stimulus efficacy for both the focused and unfocused stimulation at a plurality of locations to determine a measure of neural survival. In particular small differences in effects produced by unfocused and focused stimulation at each of the locations tends to indicate good survival at those locations and conversely large differences in effects of focused and unfocused stimulation at a given location indicate poor survival at that location.

Assessing neural survival

A compartmentalized fitting system that may be used by a recipient to determine device parameters, such as threshold and/or maximum comfort levels, for a stimulating medical device is provided. The compartmentalized fitting system segregates the fitting procedure into separate sessions. For example, in an embodiment, the fitting system provides a clinician driven setup session whereby a clinician may specify parameters that are to be used in fitting the medical device. After which, the fitting system may enter a recipient driven fitting session that is used to determine one or device parameters for the stimulating medical device. Once determined, the fitting system passes control to a clinician driven approval session whereby the clinician can approve the determined set of device parameters; and, if approved store the determined device parameters. This storage may comprise loading the determined device parameters onto the stimulating medical device for subsequent use by the device.

Growing community of inventors

Centennial, CO, United States of America

Christopher Joseph Long