Conference Grant (R13) for 16th Symposium on Cochlear Implants in Children to be held July10-13, 2019 in Hollywood (FL) on clinical research of interest to cochlear implant clinicians and scientists

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Project Summary/Abstract This application seeks partial funding for the 16th Symposium on Cochlear Implants in Children (CI2019 Pediatric) being organized by the American Cochlear Implant Alliance collaboratively with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine on July 10-13, 2019 in Hollywood (FL). The CI clinical research meetings offer a unique opportunity for clinicians from across the CI care continuum (i.e., ENTs, audiologists, speech pathologists, deaf educators, psychologists, social workers) and scientists to learn together in a setting that differs from conferences for specific clinicians such as ENTs or audiologists on more generalized content. In 2019, the focus is how best to “treat the whole child”—beyond hearing loss. To date, CI pediatric clinical research conferences have focused primarily on the technology and therapeutic models that produce the best outcomes for the “traditional” pediatric population, a model that has led to most children who received early CI developing language that paralleled typically hearing peers. As clinical models evolved, we moved from serving English-speaking children with profound bilateral hearing loss and no secondary disabilities to a diverse CI population of very young and older children with lesser and varying (on each side) hearing loss, multiple disabilities, and those whose families reside in the US but do not speak English. There is a need to understand how to appropriately treat children from this more complex and diverse population, including those with variable language development outcomes. Students may apply for waived registration and financial support, and may enter a student poster competition with interviews conducted by an interdisciplinary committee. A post-conference seminar in Spanish will bring together US and Latin American attendees. The venue, located on the Atlantic Ocean, has flexible spaces indoors and out to encourage discussion, networking and problem-solving before and after scheduled sessions among and between experienced and emerging clinician/scientists and students. The specific aims of this proposal are to: (1) Offer a forum for discussion of research to practice principles by multidisciplinary teams for addressing family variables, social and emotional development, presence of other disabilities, bilingualism, and varying levels of hearing loss in children who may benefit from cochlear implantation but whose needs and outcomes may differ from the “traditional” candidate; (2) Ensure that the meeting venue and format utilizes a combination of presentation types, discussion tools and informal networking to engage a range of clinicians and scientists who are at different stages in their careers—highly expert clinicians/scientists, those individuals whose work is emerging, and students and fellows who benefit from interacting with more experienced colleagues; and (3) Examine the variability in the CI candidate population with the aim of improving results for those children who do not derive the expected outcome with CI via clinical and basic research that can address such variability.