[Empowering patients through app-based cochlear implant self-adjustment]

Treatment of patients with severe hearing loss or deafness using cochlear implants (CI) is nowadays clinical routine. In the Hannover Medical School alone, more than 500 patients are treated with CI annually, meaning that the pool of patients with CI increases significantly each year. Worldwide, there are over 1 million patients with a CI system; in Germany the figure is estimated at over 60,000. With such a huge number of CI patients, centralized annual routine follow-up of all patients in the implant centers is obviously not possible in the long term. Many patients would also like to reduce travel and time expenditures without missing out on the competencies of large hospitals. Simultaneously, the financial pressure exerted by health insurance providers is increasing, resulting in the requirement to provide treatment of the same or even heightened quality more efficiently. Telemedicine in the form of app-based aftercare can help to realize these goals and will play an increasingly important role in the future.