Mapping implants from a distance: what the lockdown taught us
When families couldn’t travel, cochlear implant mapping went online. What remote mapping can do — and what still needs a visit.
A cochlear implant needs regular mapping — adjusting how the processor turns sound into signals for the hearing nerve. During the lockdown, families couldn’t travel to Mumbai. So the mapping travelled to them.
“There was hardly any possibility of mapping during the lockdown, but Fatema ma’am made it possible,” wrote Vijay Borkhataria, whose daughter was mapped online. Sunil Kumar, in Bilaspur, thanked the team for “taking care of my child’s cochlear implant in our home town during the pandemic.”
What remote mapping can do
- Adjust levels and programs on the processor
- Check listening with live speech
- Keep auditory-verbal therapy going between maps
What still needs a visit
A first switch-on, and some complex maps, are still best done in person. For everything else, a stable connection, a quiet room and a parent beside the child go a long way.