Cochlear Implant Program (CIP)

Program Evaluation
Currently, there is no gold standard for judging the success of a cochlear implant. While science is struggling with this very concept, one approach is to look at the cases separately. The reason for this is many fold. There are an enormous number of factors that cannot be controlled, but build a profile of the individual. Therefore, it is difficult to compare one profile to another when these factors differ. These variables include, but are not limited to the following:
• age of the candidate
• when the deafness occurred, before development of speech or after (pre vs. post lingual deafness)
• degree of deafness
• length of deafness,
• type of map used,
• speech test(s) employed.

Ongoing monitoring will be a team approach and will include information that will be regularly obtained from the patient, his/her parents, teachers, itinerant teachers and implant team.

Such monitoring will include the above noted guidelines, but will include other factors such as how well the device works, patient test performance, language acquisition (for children) as well as other behavioral, speech and educational/work/social guidelines that have yet to be developed by the team.