New Technology – an USAIS First – Initial Tuning by Remote

An 18 month old baby girl heard for the first time this week, when Helen Cullington – an audiologist at the University of Southampton Auditory Implant Service (USAIS) – switched on her cochlear implants at home. 

The little girl has been deaf since birth and had cochlear implant surgery earlier in the month. 

Due to the COVID-19 emergency, USAIS is not able to see patients in the clinic at this time.  The clinic was really keen to give the little girl access to sound as soon as possible, so delivered the equipment and computer to the patient’s home, and remote connected to the computer to do the switch on. 

The session went really well, and the parents were delighted and grateful.  This is thought to be the first time that a switch on has been done remotely in the United Kingdom.