Ingeborg Hochmair
Austrian electrical engineer
Ingeborg J. Hochmair-Desoyer (born 1953) is an Austrian electrical engineer and the CEO and CTO of hearing implant company MED-EL. Dr Hochmair and her husband Prof. Erwin Hochmair co-created the first micro-electronic multi-channel cochlear implant in the world.2
From Wikipedia’s article on Ingeborg Hochmair (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Born Jan 17, 1953.1
About
She received the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award for her contributions towards the development of the modern cochlear implant. She also received the 2015 Russ Prize for bioengineering.
In 1989, she co-founded the medical device company MED-EL.
From Wikipedia’s article on Ingeborg Hochmair, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2
Companies
Early life and education
Career
Occupation: scientist, inventor.6
In 1975, Ingeborg and Erwin Hochmair started the cochlear implant development at Technical University of Vienna with the overall goal of enabling the user not only to hear sounds but also to provide some speech understanding. Together they developed the world's first microelectronic multi-channel cochlear implant. This implant included a long, flexible electrode, which could, for the first time, deliver electric signals to the auditory nerve along a large part of the cochlea, the snail-shaped inner ear. The new multi-channel device was implanted in December 1977 in Vienna by Dr Kurt Burian.
Testing various sound processing strategies with this device, ranging from single-channel quasi-analog stimulation to more complex patterns, failed to produce open speech understanding. However, when a single broadband channel with analog-style stimulation was tried, the patient showed some rudimentary speech comprehension and lip-reading support. This finding changed the direction of their research program. The Hochmairs decided that their approach in making complex microelectronic implants was premature, and they pivoted to researching simpler passive implants that were easier to construct and modify.
In 1979, a passive transcutaneous four-channel implant developed by the Hochmairs allowed a woman to understand some open-set speech without lip-reading in a quiet environment. However, the speech coding strategy stimulated the best-performing single electrode rather than using multiple channels simultaneously, making this functionally closer to a single-channel approach..
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3M/Vienna single-channel cochlear implant
In 1981, the 3M Corporation entered into a licence and support agreement with the Vienna group involving the commercialisation of their cochlear implant system, and the device subsequently became known as the 3M/Vienna cochlear implant. Clinical evaluations demonstrated that some patients could achieve substantial open-set word recognition without visual cues. However, a redesign that replaced the intracochlear electrode with an extracochlear electrode resulted in diminished speech performance, and 3M's commercial involvement ultimately ended. Comparative studies found that, while the Vienna single-channel implant provided meaningful auditory benefit, multi-channel designs from other manufacturers generally allowed users to recognise more environmental sounds and understand speech more effectively in sound-only conditions. The Vienna group subsequently founded MED-EL in 1990 in order to pursue a multi-channel design incorporating Blake Wilson's CIS-strategy.
Through MED-EL, Hochmair has led many further advances in hearing implant research, including the introduction of a behind-the-ear audio processor in 1991, new sound coding strategies, and the development of single-unit audio processors. A totally implantable cochlear implant has been released in September 2026.
The cochlear implant is the first device to actually replace a human sense Not only that, but it addresses hearing loss, which is number six on the list of the world's most significant disease burdens
Hochmair has over 40 patents to her name, all of which are for components of her cochlear implant. Many of the patents were updated or improved versions of older components for which she filed a new patent. A fairly comprehensive, but incomplete, list of her patents are as follows:
1999 Structure, method of use, and method of manufacture of an implanted hearing prosthesis
1999 Device and method for implants in ossified cochleas
2003 Implantable fluid delivery apparatuses and implantable electrode
2003 Implantable device with flexible interconnect to coil
2006 Implantable fluid delivery apparatuses and implantable electrode
2006 Implantable fluid [housing] apparatuses and implantable electrode
2007 Tinnitus Suppressing Cochlear Implant
2007 Implanted system with dc free inputs and outputs
2008 Cochlear Implant Power System and Methodology
2008 Moving Coil Actuator For Middle Ear Implants
2008 Implant Sensor and Control
2009 Demagnetized Implant for Magnetic Resonance Imaging
2009 Implantable device with flexible interconnect to coil
2009 Demagnetized implant for magnetic resonance imaging
2010 Low power signal transmission
2010 Low Power Signal Transmission (part 2)
2010 Tinnitus Suppressing Cochlear Implant (updated)
2010 Moving coil actuator for middle ear implants
2010 Implantable fluid delivery apparatuses and implantable electrode (part 2)
2011 Implantable Fluid Delivery Apparatuses and Implantable Electrode (part 3)
2011 Implanted system with DC free inputs and outputs
2013 Low power signal transmission (part 3)
2013 Low power signal transmission (update 4)
2013 Implant sensor and control
2014 Implant sensor and control
2015 Implantable Fluid Delivery Apparatus and Implantable Electrode (part 4)
2015 Cochlear Implant Electrode Insertion Support Device
2015 Deployable and Multi-Sectional Hearing Implant Electrode
2015 Deployable and Multi-Sectional Hearing Implant Electrode
2016 Implantable Fluid Delivery Apparatus and Implantable Electrode
2016 Implantable fluid delivery apparatus with micro-valve
2017 Implantable fluid delivery apparatus and implantable electrode (part 5)
2017 Implantable Fluid Delivery Apparatus and Implantable Electrode (part 6)
2019 Implantable fluid delivery apparatus and implantable electrode (part 7)
2020 MRI-Safe and Force-Optimized Implantable Ring Magnet System with an Enhanced Inductive Link
2022 MRI-Safe and Force-Optimized Implantable Ring Magnet System with an Enhanced Inductive Link (part 2)
Though she had a number of collaborators, Hochmair contributed to all 36 of these patents in major ways, as the cochlear implant project was hers. As can be seen in the patent timeline above, she has continued to update and improve her device even this year. More than 400,000 people around the world were already using this device as of 2015.
From Wikipedia’s article on Ingeborg Hochmair (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Personal life
Hochmair is married to her husband and business partner, Erwin Hochmair. The couple have four children.
From Wikipedia’s article on Ingeborg Hochmair (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.
Awards
- 2023IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal10 15
- 2022Honorary doctor of the University of Liège10 14
- 2015Russ Prize10 13
- 2013Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award10 12
- 2008Sign of honour of Tirol10
- 1996Wilhelm Exner Medal10 11
- Date not recordedHonorary doctorate from the Technical University of Munich10
Links
Sources
The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.
- 1WikidataIngeborg Hochmair on Wikidata
- 2WikipediaIngeborg Hochmair on Wikipedia
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- 11Wikidataaward, as reported
- 12Wikidataaward, as reported
- 13Wikidataaward, as reported
- 14Wikidataaward, as reported
- 15Wikidataaward, as reported
- 16WikidataMED-EL, Founder
- 17Wikimedia CommonsIngeborg Hochmair photo by Edith.mitschnigg, CC BY-SA 3.0