Building a Multidisciplinary Cochlear Implant Team

Abstract

Cochlear implantation is evolving into a common modality of auditory rehabilitation for the patient with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss. In order to provide the patient considering cochlear implantation with an understanding of how best to integrate the device into his daily life, adequate evaluation, counseling, and instruction are required. Using the multidisciplinary model, our initial experience has shown that evaluation by specialists in audiology, otolaryngology, speech pathology, pediatric genetics, social work, and child life may lead to better patient and family understanding of cochlear implantation.

Interdisciplinary work: essential for optimal results in auditory implants

“…When cochlear implants first appeared, a multidisciplinary team was considered an essential requirement and worked actively from the preoperative stage onwards to decide whether the cochlear implant candidate would benefit from the new technology, taking all aspects into consideration. The teams were comprised at a minimum of an ENT specialist, an audiologist, a speech therapist, and often a psychologist (Parikh et al, 2004;Cooper 2006;Kim et al, 2010). Since then, the number of health care professionals working in hearing implantrelated specialties has increased exponentially.…”

Cochlear implantation in South Africa (part 1)

“…Communication between the team members ensures well-co-ordinated patient evaluation and implantation. [38] Sound determination of CI candidacy necessitates the successful collaboration of various professionals involved in cochlear implantation, with each professional requiring adequate knowledge of the other team members' scope of practice within the field of CIs. A CI programme comprises the following essential personnel: otologists; audiologists; and rehabilitation specialists such as speech-language therapists and/or auditory-verbal therapists.…”

The effect of simulation learning on audiology and speech-language pathology students’ self-confidence related to early hearing detection and intervention: a randomized experiment

“…[WHO], 2010). The multidisciplinary cochlear implant team is an example of IPP (Parikh et al, 2016). This team includes audiologists, SLPs, otologists, nurses, clinical physiologist, and other professionals who assess, diagnose and provide rehabilitation for children and adults.…”