Rehabilitation of Deaf People with Iran-Made Electronic Stimulation Device
Samira Koshkestani, the managing director of the Iranian knowledge-based company that manufactures medical equipment for people with hearing loss, explained in an interview with ANA about the idea of designing and producing auditory evoked fields (AEF) or electronic stimulator devices, saying, “This product is the result of developing know-how of electronic cochlear implants. Its production started two years ago and it was put into operation by the experts in this company this year.”
A cochlear implant is a small electronic device that helps people hear. It can be used for people who are deaf or very hard of hearing.
She said that the core function of a cochlear implant is to convert the input sounds into meaningful electrical stimulation patterns. These electronic stimulators produce rehabilitative and cognitive effects for the deaf person through the stimulation they produce in the ear’s nerves.
She added that they have produced the device for testing the hearing in deaf people, while the expert team has been working on developing the device for other functions in the fields of neuroscience and physiotherapy in the next stage.
“Through the software we designed, the type of pulses, the shape of the waves, and their intensity can be programmed, and through the electrodes, the waves are exercised into a certain area of the body.
Cochlear implants allow deaf people to receive and process sounds and speech. However, these devices do not restore normal hearing. They are tools that allow sound and speech to be processed and sent to the brain.
The electrodes that are the outside device are connected to the patient's body and generate electromagnetic waves.
Koshkestani went on to say that this part of the implant receives the sound, converts the sound into an electrical signal, and sends it to the inside part of the cochlear implant.
She also said they obtained a patent certificate from the United States about five years ago.
“These devices are produced in Iran for the first time by the country's knowledge-based researchers,” she continued.
Koshkestani pointed to the commercialization of the knowledge-based product, saying, “Now about 35 medical centers and hospitals in the field of audiometry and ear-related diseases are using this device.”
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