MED-EL and Meludia team up to improve the hearing and musical experience of people with hearing implants

MED-EL, a worldwide leader in implantable and non-implantable hearing solutions, has entered into an exclusive partnership with Meludia, a pioneer in cognitive training based on music. MED-EL and Meludia will combine their expertise to create music-based auditory training exercises for hearing implant users. 

Meludia is the creator of a musical method and a new generation of interactive digital tools that allow for the autonomous development of cognitive abilities related to hearing and the perception of music. Based on music listening, the Meludia Method is a cognitive, emotional, and speech-oriented approach to music education that is now also used for the rehabilitation of hearing loss.

Meludia is an online software that provides structured and guided music training for musically experienced and inexperienced children and adults, which is designed to enable them to be successful. The program offers many benefits: it is currently available in 18 different languages and can be used globally; it is easily accessible and convenient to use because it allows for an individual schedule; and because it is such a comprehensive music training tool, it gives MED-EL recipients the chance to work on individual goals regardless of their present abilities. The tool is useful both for users who want to improve their music enjoyment and for users who want to improve their music performance with an instrument, which allows for a wide range of goals that MED-EL recipients might have.  

"Music appreciation is a subject we at MED-EL hold very dear to our hearts, as well as one of the fascinating topics in terms of further improvement. We believe Meludia will be extremely beneficial to our users, and we hope our new partnership will result in the creation of an aural rehabilitation program that is fun, autonomous, and accessible to all. In addition, by stimulating the cognitive skills associated with their hearing, our implant users will benefit even more from the state-of-the-art technology of our products."

Dr. Ingeborg Hochmair-Desoyer

Co-Founder and CEO of MED-EL

"Music stimulates cognitive skills in an extremely precise and universal manner. We look forward to working closely with MED-EL to help people with hearing loss to improve their hearing and consequently their quality of life."

Vincent Chaintrier

Co-founder and Creator of the Meludia Method

Meludia was first used to help people with hearing loss in 2015 by ENT doctors in France. An initial scientific study was conducted between 2016 and 2018 by Dr. Charles Limb, a neurosurgeon at the University of California in San Francisco (UCSF). This study found small improvement for pitch and timbre tasks for cochlear implant (CI) users and normal hearing individuals after only 1 month of practice.  

"It is MED-EL’s goal to improve music enjoyment for hearing implant users. One way to achieve this goal is through practice, and with Meludia we assessed and found a suitable and comprehensive training tool that allows MED-EL to reach and support every single one of its hearing implant users around the world."

Johanna Boyer

Musicologist at MED-EL

In a study, Boyer et al. evaluated the suitability of the Meludia music training software for 38 adult CI users. The results are very promising and demonstrate an important advantage that all MED-EL cochlear implant users independent of age, duration of cochlear implant use, indication and musical background can access the exercises and successfully use Meludia for their musical training. More importantly, Boyer et al. found that the easiest exercises available in Meludia are easy enough for CI users to be able to use this training resource and make progress.

In addition, their analysis identified a few exercises that were judged as being too difficult for CI users. These results were shared with the designers of Meludia and in collaboration with MED-EL, the exercises were adjusted for the needs of CI users to ensure steady progress and motivation throughout their music training.

"I enjoyed the process, much more than I anticipated. I see benefits from learning to hear and discriminate music better. But I also felt that somehow it was good for my brain to do the exercises.

I admit that two years ago, I was somewhat uncertain about it owing to what I perceived as my history with music appreciation. But then, with the testing last year, your pointing out that I was able to more or less "vocalize" the changes in pitch and then this final product gives me some anticipation of improving my enjoyment of music in particular as well as other life-enjoyment benefits. "

Brian Luscher, 69 ans

Who participated in the MED-EL study

Thanks to the new partnership, MED-EL can help its customers make lasting improvements to their hearing, musical pleasure, and listening comfort by offering access to Meludia.

About MED-EL

MED-EL Medical Electronics, a leader in implantable hearing solutions, is driven by a mission to overcome hearing loss as a barrier to communication. The Austrian-based, privately owned business was co-founded by industry pioneers Ingeborg and Erwin Hochmair, whose ground-breaking research led to the development of the world’s first micro-electronic multi-channel cochlear implant, which was successfully implanted in 1977 and was the basis for what is known as the modern CI today. This laid the foundation for the successful growth of the company in 1990, when they hired their first employees. To date, MED-EL has grown to more than 2,200 employees from around 75 nations and 30 locations worldwide.

The company offers the widest range of implantable and non-implantable solutions to treat all types of hearing loss, enabling people in 124 countries enjoy the gift of hearing with the help of a MED-EL device. MED-EL’s hearing solutions include cochlear and middle ear implant systems, a combined Electric Acoustic Stimulation hearing implant system, auditory brainstem implants as well as surgical and non-surgical bone conduction devices.

www.medel.com   

About Meludia

Meludia is a French developer of cognitive training applications based on music. Founded in 2012, Meludia won a gold medal and the grand prize at the 2014 Lépine International Competition for its groundbreaking approach to musical education, which has since been endorsed by teachers, professional musicians, and major institutions such as the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

The "Meludia Method," developed by the composer Vincent Chaintrier, is based on 25 years of research and draws from the latest advances in cognitive science, including implicit and reinforcement learning. Meludia is made unique by its innovative method which has been transformed into a fun online tool that helps users enhance their understanding and appreciation of the musical language one step at a time, all the while increasing their level of dedication, motivation, and pleasure with regard to music.

The Meludia platform has attracted international media attention thanks to its nationwide deployment in Estonia (2015), Malta (2016), Canada (2017) and the Faroe Islands (2018). 

www.meludia.com

Contact MED-EL : [email protected]

Contact Meludia : [email protected]