The Cochlear Implant Center has a strong academic and research component . Since the inception of the program in 1984 more than 100 publications resulting from our research endeavors have been published in medical and audiological peer-reviewed journals.

Major areas of research have included

• the efficacy and safety of multichannel cochlear implants
• variables affecting outcome with cochlear implants
• surgical techniques and complications and electrode design.

From 1987-1992, Drs. Cohen and Waltzman were the Principal Investigators of the first and only prospective multicenter randomized study of advanced cochlear implants: a five year study which was funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs Cooperative Studies Program and Division of Rehabilitation Research and Development. The study has been quoted as a landmark for its scientific research design and the keynote manuscript was published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

In addition to the published research articles, members of the cochlear implant team have contributed numerous chapters related to cochlear implantation to various textbooks and Drs. Waltzman and Roland have recently had the second edition of a book published by Thieme Medical Publishers, titled ‘Cochlear Implants'. Drs. Roland, Waltzman, Lalwani, Svirsky, and Mr. Shapiro have been invited to present their work at numerous conferences worldwide in addition to being Visiting Professors at institutions nationally and internationally.

Current research activities include:

1. Efforts to assist in the design of electrode arrays which will be easy to insert, cause minimal trauma both during and following insertion, be easily replaceable should there be a device failure, have efficient power management, more restricted and efficient ganglion cell stimulation and provide a platform for the implementation of improved speech processing strategies
2. Device programming techniques to increase speech perception ability.
3. The influence of speech processing strategies on the outcomes obtained in a variety of populations including the long-term deafened and
4. Optimizing Cochler Implant Configurations