Federal funding led to device that has restored hearing for millions
Blake Wilson is a co-inventor and principal developer of the modern cochlear implant, a medical device that enables hearing for deaf or nearly deaf people. Thanks to research funding from the National Institutes of Health, more than a million people worldwide have cochlear implants for one or both ears, and nearly all of them are able to converse on telephones, without needing visual cues such as lipreading.
Natalie Williamson of Goldsboro, N.C., is one of those people. Williamson, suffering from hearing loss, couldn’t hear her cell phone ring or her smoke alarm go off. She rarely left home because conversations with friends and family were too difficult. She said all that changed after receiving a cochlear implant at Duke in 2021. Now Williamson can locate where a sound is coming from (called sound localization or spatial hearing) and can understand speech, even amid background noise.
“There were three things I wanted out of (getting the implant),” she said. “To be able to hear my father, to be able to hear my children, and to be able to hear music. I have gotten that and so much more.”
