CIICA CONVERSATION: ADULTS WITH CI: ACCESSIBLE BI-LATERAL IMPLANTATION
TUESDAY 28th JANUARY 2025: THIS POPULAR EVENT WAS FULL!
Who should qualify for bi-lateral implantation? Who should own the decision making? For those who are bi-laterally implanted, what are your lessons learned?
This popular one hour conversation discussed bi-lateral implantation accessibility with participants from 13 countries, led by Sue Archbold, Wendy Huinck, Associate Professor of ENT at RadboudUMC in Nijmegen, Netherlands and Kathryn Chlosta, a CI user, Robert Mandara, President of EURO-CIU and other interested implant users.
Accessibility to bi-lateral implantation, in both financial reimbursement and access to services, varies widely across countries. Wendy began by sharing information on the benefits of CI, with an explanation of the funding situation in the Netherlands where bilateral CI is not funded for adults, and the frustrations this gives to professionals in the clinic. Kathyrn Chlosta went on to illustrate her own frustrations with one CI and one HA – she cannot be publicly funded nor fund herself for another CI. Both demonstrated that CI users are imperative stakeholders in shared decision making for bi-lateral implantation.
As Kathryn said:
I have a Porsche in one ear and a bicycle in the other.
Kathryn went on to facilitate the conversation with users and professionals involved in this debate: bilateral CI users were strongly convinced of the benefits. Robert’s comment, supported by Kelly from the USA:
you could offer me a million Euros and I wouldn’t give you my second CI back…
This was an opportunity to share thoughts, lived experiences and current accessibility in your own situation and for professionals to ask questions about the reality of bilateral CI in everyday life. The discussion went on to consider how evidence can be presented to decision makers which would include the user voice, and the group wishes to follow this up at another date. More Soon!
The summary of the conversation will be available soon.
