The Apollo Cochlear Implant Clinic performs a record 1500 cochlear implants, the largest program in South Asia!

Hyderabad, November 18, 2019: The Apollo Cochlear Implant Clinic, the first such clinic in south India, began its services way back in 1994 at the Apollo Hospitals Hyderabad under the leadership of renowned ENT Surgeon, Dr E. C. Vinaya Kumar, has achieved a major landmark, with the performing of more than 1500 Cochlear implantations. The team has cornered the distinction of being the largest Cochlear Implant Program in India and South Asia, as Apollo Program marks the momentous Silver Jubilee.

Apollo Cochlear Implant program was the trailblazer for most cochlear implant programs currently running in India. Initially, the team conducted several workshops, seminars, awareness programs to educate professionals, patients and the general public. It played a crucial role in popularizing the program by mentoring and training cochlear implant Surgeons, Audiologists and Rehabilitationists in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Manipur, Odisha, West Bengal etc., thereby thousands of kids in these states gained the hearing ability, who otherwise would have remained deaf and neglected by the society.

The multidisciplinary Apollo Cochlear Implant team has enormous expertise in evaluating and implanting very young children, including infants. Its expertise enabled children and adults of all ages with hearing impairment to benefit. The patients rehabilitated through Cochlear implantation by the team are as young as 9 months old babies to 87 years elderly population, says Dr E. C. Vinaya Kumar, Sr. Consultant ENT Surgeon, Apollo Hospitals Hyderabad.

In the course of these 25 glorious years, the Apollo Cochlear implant clinic has won several laurels, including a world record for doing the highest number of surgeries in a single day. It has the highest surgical success rate (i.e. lowest complications) compared to European multicenter statistics.

The Apollo Cochlear Implant program is one of the stupendous initiatives of the Apollo Hospitals Hyderabad, it enabled bring a ray of hope for several parents of stone deaf little children and brought these kids into the mainstream, today they are leading a life of dignity and are doing extremely well in their chosen path, says Dr Hari Prasad, President – Hospitals Division, Apollo Hospitals Group.  

It was the Apollo Cochlear implant program that influenced the then Andhra Pradesh government to include free cochlear implant surgeries under the Rajiv Aarogyasree scheme and sought the help of the NGO, Society to Aid the Hearing Impaired (SAHI). Later this model was replicated by many state governments in their health schemes and the central government too adopted it in the ADIP cochlear implant program.

About Society to Aid the Hearing Impaired (SAHI)

In November of 2004, a group of ENT surgeons, audiologists, and hospital management personnel, united with concerned citizens, to form SAHI. It is an Indian NGO that aims at helping underprivileged children with impaired hearing. SARI mainly seeks to identify and aid children living in rural areas, with little or no access to modern medical treatment. Since its establishment, SAHI has been addressing this problem by means of conducting camps in remote areas of the state. Children with learning disabilities or hearing loss are given hearing aids by SAHI and those with ear diseases are given free ear surgeries, under the Hearing Impaired Girl children project SAHI is providing free cochlear implant surgeries for girl children.

SAHI is working on the prevention, awareness, identification and treatment through various activities.

We regularly conduct a “Newborn hearing screening program” to detect hearing problems immediately after birth with the simple test called Otoacoustic emissions (OAE). SAHI conducts free ear camps in rural areas, slums to identify children with hearing problems and provide necessary treatment including medical and surgical at free of cost. Children who require hearing aids will be provided digitally programmable hearing aids free of cost. As part of the camps, we also conduct awareness programs in the schools, community halls, etc.

SAHI initiated the “Gift an Ear” project to fund children to undergo cochlear implant surgeries, initiated the “Hearing Impaired Girl Child Project’ to fund free cochlear implant for the hearing impaired girl children. To date over 360 cochlear implant surgeries were funded by SAHI. SAHI also helps in providing auditory-verbal therapy for children with hearing loss undergone cochlear implant surgery and fitted with hearing aids. Auditory verbal therapy is a very important task in achieving normal speech and language skills for hearing-impaired children, outcomes of the surgery are highly dependent on auditory-verbal therapy.

About Apollo Hospitals

It was in 1983, that Dr. Prathap Reddy made a pioneering endeavour by launching India’s first corporate hospital – Apollo Hospital in Chennai. Now, as Asia largest and most trusted healthcare group, its presence includes 8,488 beds across 51 Hospitals, 1,586 Pharmacies, 92 Primary Care and Diagnostic Clinics, 100 Telemedicine units across 10 countries. Health Insurance services, Global Projects Consultancy, 15 colleges of Nursing and Hospital Management and a Research Foundation with a focus on global Clinical Trials, epidemiological studies, stem cell & genetic research and the first Proton Therapy Centre across Asia, Africa and Australia.

In a rare honour, the Government of India issued a commemorative stamp in recognition of Apollo’s contribution, the first for a healthcare organization. Apollo Hospitals Chairman, Dr. Prathap C Reddy, was conferred with the prestigious Padma Vibhushan in 2010. For more than 28 years, the Apollo Hospitals Group has continuously excelled and maintained leadership in medical innovation, world-class clinical services and cutting-edge technology. Our hospitals are consistently ranked amongst the best hospitals globally for advanced medical services and research.