Hearing experts from WashU Medicine recently attended national and international meetings to share their research and clinical experience on cochlear implantation. WashU Medicine Otolaryngology is one of the most active implant centers in the country.
One of the greatest advances in medical technology in the past century, cochlear implants are now a go-to solution for those with hearing impairment that does not respond well to hearing aids. In the US alone, more than 300,000 patients have been implanted.
Surprisingly then, it still remains difficult to identify those patients for whom an implant will provide significant benefit; identify the surgical techniques that will optimize implant outcomes; and even identify what sounds are most important to cochlear implant recipients.
ACIA Chicago offers a broad spectrum of information
The American Cochlear Implant Alliance Conference on Cochlear Implants is designed to foster dissemination of multi-disciplinary scientific information applicable to audiologists, physicians, speech pathologists, psychologists, scientists, engineers, educators, students, advocates, and others involved in cochlear implantation.
The 2026 meeting in Chicago hosted more than 1500 professionals and covered implant research, clinical care and technological advancements. Meeting themes also included:
- unique challenges in SSD (single-sided deafness) patients
- cochlear implant mapping, programming and optimization
- mental health comorbidities in CI care
- cognition and CI in aging patients
- machine learning and AI applications in CI
WashU Medicine surgeons and audiologists make their impact
Contributions from WashU Medicine were numerous, in the form of both scientific presentations and panel discussions.
Perimodiolar Electrode Locations Outperform Lateral Wall Arrays When Controlling for Cochlear Health and Speech Processing Strategy
Amit Walia (Keynote speaker)
Intensity-Driven Shifts in Tonotopic Coding in Humans: A Framework for Cochlear Implant Frequency Allocation
Amit Walia, Jordan Varghese, Matthew A Shew, Shannon M. Lefler, Amanda J. Ortmann, Jacques A Herzog and Craig A. Buchman
Visualizing Disruption of the Cochlear Traveling Wave with Intracochlear Electrocochleography and CT: Implications for Residual Hearing
Amit Walia, Jordan Varghese, Matthew A Shew, Shannon M. Lefler, Amanda J. Ortmann, Craig A. Buchman and Jacques A Herzog
Utilizing Intracochlear Electrocochleography for Real-Time Detection of Tip Fold-Over with Perimodiolar Electrode Arrays
Jordan J. Varghese, Matthew A. Shew, Amit Walia, Matthew Wu, Shannon M. Lefler, Amanda J. Ortmann, Nedim Durakovic, Jacques A. Herzog and Craig A. Buchman
Retaining Professionals to Support the Development of Children Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing
Casey Reimer and Amanda Rudge
Electrocochleography Insertion Patterns and Hearing Preservation in Cochlear Implants
Shannon Lefler, Amit Walia, William Bray, James Bao, Jordan Varghese, Nedim Durakovic, Pawina Jiramongkolchai, Jacques Herzog, Craig Buchman, Amanda Ortmann and Matthew Shew
Other contributions to panel discussions and scientific sessions included the following:
- Nedim Durakovic, MD, served as co-moderator of, “Otologic and surgical considerations”.
- Jacques Herzog, MD, served on a panel, “Practice building and program growth”.
- Former Lindburg Professor Craig Buchman, MD, delivered the John Niparko Memorial Lecture, “Predicting Performance in Cochlear Implantation”.
From Chicago to Warsaw
Following the ACIA Meeting in Chicago, neurotology fellow Amit Walia, MD, and Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology Katie Berg, PhD, traveled to Warsaw for CI2026, an international gathering of professionals focused on cochlear implant optimization.
Berg presented some of her current work focused on identifying the sound quality domains important to implant users that can be used to guide future developments in implant sound quality.
Measuring cochlear implant sound quality: What matters to users?
Katelyn Berg1, Gizem Babaoglu Demiroz2, Madeline Hauenstein1, Ashley Sellers3, Aaron Moberly2, Theodore McRackan4, Terrin Tamati5
Berg also served on three panel discussions: “Difficult Surgical Cases”, “Hearing Outcome Prediction”, and “Ethical Considerations in Cochlear Implantation”.
Walia served as panelist for, “Anatomy-based fitting” and “ECochG During Cochlear Implantation: Standard of Care or Academic Luxury?” He also chaired the scientific session, “EcochG”, a relatively novel use of physiological signals from the inner ear used to help optimize cochlear implant insertion.