TECH Talk – Kaplan – Reliability Reporting

March 12, 2020

Dr. Brian Kaplan, cochlear implant surgeon and Senior Vice President of Clinical Strategy & Innovation at Cochlear, reviews the challenges clinicians have faced over the years to obtain consistent reliability data from manufacturers. 

As a result, this affected their ability to answer patients’ questions regarding implant safety and reliability. The lack of a standard definition for an implant failure magnified the differences in manufacturers’ reporting methods and the need for consistency. Traumas, life stages and legacy products were also classified differently within these reliability reports.

As explained by Dr. Kaplan, a new AAMI standard (https://bit.ly/2Mhm2h1) calculates overall failure rates of the implant, regardless of the cause, and an assessment for external sound processors for the first time1. The report also covers the life cycle of the entire product portfolio and legacy products. 

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