Cochlear Implant Patient Assessment. Evaluation of Candidacy, Performance, and Outcomes

A Volume in the Core Clinical Concepts in Audiology Series. 

This updated second edition of Cochlear Implant Patient Assessment, Evaluation of Candidacy, Performance, and Outcomes, Second Edition is an instrumental reference for clinicians working with cochlear implant recipients and graduate students in the fields of speech-language pathology and audiology. The content of the text is logically organized, and begins with necessary background information for cochlear implant candidacy and the selection process. Later chapters provide information on assessment of implant candidacy, postoperative assessment of performance over the long term, and possibilities for future research and understanding.

Though Cochlear Implant Patient Assessment, Second Edition contains useful information for even the most seasoned clinicians, it will serve an especially important role in the education and training of students and clinicians being introduced to cochlear implant clinical practice. Having an experienced audiologist and speech-language pathologist authoring this work unites the inter-disciplinary nature of this practice.

• Up-to-date research guiding candidacy and outcomes assessment—particularly relevant for cases of hearing preservation, determining bilateral CI candidacy, bimodal hearing, and assessment of the nontraditional cochlear implant candidate
• Assessment of candidacy and postoperative outcomes for individuals with unilateral deafness
• Assessment of non-English-speaking patients
• Role of imaging in device selection and postoperative assessment 
• Access to a PluralPlus companion website with related files and printable forms

René H. Gifford, PhD, CCC-A, is a Professor in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences with a joint appointment in the Department of Otolaryngology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She is the Director of the Cochlear Implant Program at the Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center in the Division of Audiology as well as the Director of the Cochlear Implant Research Laboratory. Her NIH-funded research investigates auditory function and spatial hearing as well as electrophysiologic correlates of auditory perception for adults and children with hearing loss using cochlear implants and hearing aids. She has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and delivered nearly 300 presentations around the world.  She was the 2015 recipient of the ASHA Louis M. DiCarlo Award for Recent Clinical Achievement as well as the 2017 recipient of the Vanderbilt Chancellor’s Award for Research, both awarded for her work in auditory outcomes following hearing preservation cochlear implantation. Dr. Gifford and her husband, Branden, are parents to three boys, Levi, Jacob, and Aidan.