The 2013 Lasker~DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award honors three scientists who developed the modern cochlear implant, a device that restores hearing to individuals with profound deafness. Through their vision, persistence, and innovation, Graeme M. Clark (Emeritus, University of Melbourne), Ingeborg Hochmair (MED-EL, Innsbruck), and Blake S. Wilson (Duke University) created an apparatus that has transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. Their work has, for the first time, substantially restored a human sense with a medical intervention.
Check out their incredible video interview of cochlear implant pioneers Graeme M. Clark, Ingeborg Hochmair and Blake S. Wilson and an extensive description of the history of the development of the cochlear implant.
It's hard to believe the FDA only gave its inaugural approval to a multichannel cochlear implant in 1985 for treating adults who could hear before they went deaf.
Comments