Top scientist calls in at Bradford cochlear implant service

Dr Ingeborg Hochmair was at the centre at Bradford Royal Infirmary to find out more about the Yorkshire Cochlear Implant Service which manages hundreds of patients and their families.

Dr Hochmair, chief executive of the Austrian Hearing Implant Company, MED-EL, was also due to attend a presentation of the Bradford HeaRRing Group, a team of eminent researchers and scientists plus experts from York University. Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust’s ENT consultant Chris Raine said he was delighted Dr Hochmair had been able to visit Bradford’s Listening for Life Centre.

“In medicine, and in particular among ENT professionals, Inge has been an enormous driving force in the world of cochlear implantation and is one of the main world developers of hearing implant systems,” he said.

“We are delighted that she is in Bradford today.”

During her visit on behalf of MED-EL, the company she founded 20 years ago with her husband, Professor Erwin Hochmair, Dr Hochmair was presenting the Ear Trust with a donation for its Listening for Life Centre Appeal.

The Ear Trust is a charity founded in 1990 by Mr Raine, who was honoured as one of the world’s leading Cochlear Implant Pioneers at a European Research meeting. The charity supports the work of the YCIS and is trying to raise £300,000 for equipment.

Mr Raine said: “I am very grateful to Inge for her very generous contribution which will go towards sponsoring a research audiologist, who will be based between the centre and York University for two years, to help with assessing patients for cochlear implants and to supply NICE with additional information.

“The Yorkshire Cochlear Implant Service is a centre of excellence and is part of the HeaRRing group which acts as a global network of centres for cochlear implantation – there’s only about 18 in the world – and as we are the UK centre for collaboration and research we are honoured to receive this cheque today.”