China News Online, July 8th (Chen Jing, Jia Huan) The "domestic artificial auditory brainstem implant system" developed by Chinese medical experts completed the agreement on the transformation of the results on the 8th, and the results were transferred in the form of patented technology licensing.
The team of Professor Wu Hao from the Ninth People’s Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine successfully developed a domestic central artificial hearing reconstruction device, which means that in the future, many deaf patients who cannot rebuild their hearing through a cochlear implant will no longer rely on imported products and can regain the “new voice” .
It is understood that at present, only Australia and Austria have two similar devices in the world.
The price of domestically-made devices is much lower than that of imported ones.
According to reports, congenital deafness is one of the most common birth defects, with an incidence rate of 1‰-3‰, of which 1/3 is severe hearing loss, which requires artificial hearing reconstruction.
Since the launch of the newborn hearing screening program in China in 2001, most patients with severe congenital deafness have received hearing and speech rehabilitation through cochlear implants.
However, many children still live in a silent world because they have severe cochlear or auditory nerve development abnormalities and cannot be implanted with cochlear implants.
Wu Hao believes that the continuous progress of the "artificial auditory brainstem implant system" will promote the development of brain science and brain-computer interface technology.
Photo by Xi Rongpei
In an interview with reporters that day, Professor Wu Hao introduced that the development of auditory brainstem implant technology (ABI) has effectively solved this worldwide problem.
It is reported that the auditory brainstem implant technology produces hearing by stimulating higher-level neurons in the auditory pathway. However, because the implant target is located in the cochlear nucleus of the brainstem, adjacent to many important blood vessels and nerves, the surgical space is narrow and the surgical technique is extremely difficult. , And expensive.
Only a few centers in the world have the ability to carry out this technology.
According to Professor Wu Hao: “Auditory brainstem implantation is the last mile to solve congenital deafness. It is an invasive brain-computer interface technology. The traditional invasive brain-computer interface technology mainly focuses on the motor nervous system. The special auditory sensory center, with complex frequency and intensity coding, can produce meaningful hearing and speech."
During the interview, he told reporters that in the future, with the development of brain-computer interface technology, especially the development of artificial intelligence and flexible electrodes, the implantation of the auditory center will achieve more breakthroughs, and the clinical effect will be better and better.
Mankind will say goodbye to deaf-mute and disability.
16 auditory neurons used to stimulate the cochlear nucleus are densely packed on the 3*5.5mm flexible material.
Photo by Xi Rongpei
The reporter saw that 16 auditory neurons used to stimulate the cochlear nucleus were densely packed on a 3*5.5mm flexible material.
The flexible material will be implanted into the cochlear nucleus, and the other end will be mounted on the skull.
Wu Hao introduced that early experimental studies in non-human primates have confirmed that the auditory brainstem implant system has good auditory electrophysiological performance and tissue compatibility, and can meet clinical needs.
In the research and development, the medical engineering research and development team has jointly overcome a number of technical "bottlenecks", including the determination of a 16-lead electrode array structure that meets the structural characteristics of the brainstem cochlear nucleus; the precise positioning of the cochlear nucleus through intraoperative auditory evoked potential recording; The characteristics of nuclear nerve structure optimize electrical signal stimulation strategies and improve the performance of brain-computer interface as a whole.
Wu Hao believes that the continuous progress of the "artificial auditory brainstem implant system" will promote the development of brain science and brain-computer interface technology.
He said that in the future, his team will explore the integration of artificial intelligence technology, cochlear nucleus-related neuron positioning, and flexible electrodes into artificial auditory brainstem implant technology.
It is understood that Professor Wu Hao’s team took the lead in implementing an artificial auditory brainstem implant for a child with congenital deafness in mainland China, successfully solving the problem of precise positioning of the cochlear nucleus and effective brain-computer interface during the operation.
So far, the team has completed 34 operations. After the operation, the children have developed effective hearing and speech recognition skills. After 6 to 8 months, the children began to develop language communication skills.
Wu Hao said bluntly that for patients with congenital deafness, the earlier intervention, the better.
Guo Lian, secretary of the Party Committee of the Shanghai Ninth Academy, said that the hospital is a demonstration unit of intellectual property rights and patent work in the Shanghai health system.
By improving the cross-platform and system, from the production of laboratory scientific research results to the protection of intellectual property rights, to concept verification and transformation applications, the hospital will strengthen multi-party collaboration between medical research enterprises and jointly promote the process of technology transfer.
According to statistics, since 2018, the institute has successfully transformed 46 innovative achievements.
Guo Lian hopes that the companies that have signed the results of the transformation will do their best to quickly complete the product industrialization process and benefit patients as soon as possible.
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