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HomeNewsThe newspaper KOMMERSANT about the program "I hear the world!"
8 февраля 2018

The newspaper KOMMERSANT about the program "I hear the world!"

The project "I hear the world!", whose main goal is to support families with children with hearing impairments, celebrates its 10th birthday this year..
During this time, the organization itself and various activities supported by it helped several hundreds of families to participate in various rehabilitation programs and integrate children with cochlear implants into the social environment on a par with peers.

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Head of the Parent Association Dmitry Kulikov
In Russia there are more than 13 million people with hearing impairment, including more than a million - children, says the president of the parent association "I hear the world!" Dmitry Kulikov.
For children with congenital deafness, the only effective method of rehabilitation is cochlear implantation, which includes three mandatory steps: examination and selection of patients, immediate surgical operation and postoperative auditory rehabilitation.

"The operation is just the beginning of the road, it gives the child a hearing, but does not teach him to understand what he has heard.There are surdopedagogists, other specialists and parents who work over the development of the child's hearing and speech for a long time after the operation.Duration of rehabilitation of children with congenital deafness is fr om three to five years ", - he said.

Proper rehabilitation

In 2008, the staff of the St. Petersburg Research Institute of Ear, Nose, Throat and Speech (SRI ENT) developed the first program in Russia for the integrated development of children with hearing loss "I hear the world!". The program combines the efforts of doctors, faculty, children and their parents and introduces a child with hearing impairment into the society of hearing people. The project involves the favorite cartoon characters of children - Smeshariki . Thanks to these heroes, the learning process becomes an entertaining game - the most effective form of teaching children. In particular, a new hero appears - a lion cub Usharik , personifying a child with hearing impaired. The research institute of ENT is the leading center where cochlear implantation is carried out, and the only one in the territory of the former USSR, which is included in the international association of Hearring auditory implant clinics . The institute has already been rehabilitated by about 5 thousand patients fr om different regions of Russia. The smallest patient was operated at the age of several months.

Professor of Research Institute of ENT and RSEU named after Herzen Inna Koroleva notes that in Russia cochlear implant surgery is carried out in four main centers: the St. Petersburg Research Institute of ENT and the Medical Unit N 122, as well as in the Audiology and Hearing Center and the Russian Center for Otorhinolaryngology in Moscow, where the adjustment of the cochlear implant processor is also made. In addition, in the Research Institute of ENT, there is an auditory rehabilitation of such patients, including those operated in other centers.

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Inna Koroleva - professor of Research Institute of ENT and RSEU named after Herzen
And most importantly, the Research Institute of ENT is the only one of these centers that develops methods and materials for auditory rehabilitation of different categories of patients with CI, which are used in all regions of the Russian Federation and the former Soviet republics.
A small number of operations are conducted in Krasnoyarsk, Surgut, Krasnodar and a number of other cities. In addition, regional surdological and rehabilitation centers, kindergartens and schools, both special and general educational, where children with implants are trained, provide assistance to children with cochlear implants. Every year in Russia, 0.9-1.1 thousand implantation operations are carried out, which in general covers the country's annual demand.

Coordination of projects

The association "I hear the world!" specializes in the development of new methods of auditory rehabilitation and social adaptation of children after cochlear implantation, supports the centers of auditory rehabilitation in the regions of Russia and coordinates the work of parents and disabled children by hearing, cooperates with domestic and foreign manufacturers in the field of high technologies , trains specialists and parents and publishes the Usharik magazine, which is delivered free of charge to 4,000 addresses to families and professionals.

According to Dmitry Kulikov , today the parent association has 44 partners in the regions with which it cooperates.

"The goal of the project is to bring the rehabilitation to the patient's place of residence as close as possible and make it accessible." We try to work in those regions where there are families with children after implantation, as this is wh ere maximum help is needed" the president of association said.

The organization and its projects are known already practically on all territory of the former USSR, and recently the inquiry fr om Japan wh ere the first party of toys Usharikov has been sent has arrived.

"Japanese specialists are interested in our methods of studying with children, and we hope that Usharik will repeat the success of Cheburashka (which was very popular in Japan." SR ), " notes Dmitry Kulikov .


Among the new directions of the association, in addition to the already existing festival "Magic Symphony" and annual visits "Summer at Sea with Usharik" - an Internet project for post-operative communication with the patient and his family. It involves online counseling, a chat with a specialist, webinars, teleconferences, monitoring the patient's hearing skills, and more. The goal is to provide full support to patients with cochlear implants and hearing aids and to achieve the best possible rehabilitation.

In addition, the association is looking for partners to create a network of rehabilitation centers in various federal districts.

"We are currently engaged in a dialogue with Chelyabinsk, wh ere there are good medical professionals and officials who understand the situation," says Dmitry Kulikov .


The centers are planned to be created on the basis of already existing medical facilities. It is assumed that they will be made in the style of Smeshariki and equipped with the necessary diagnostic equipment.

Import substitution

Another area of work is the replacement of external parts of implantation systems.

"The implant system consists of two parts - the implant and the speech processor (the audio processor) .The implant is installed for life, so it is extremely important to choose the most reliable systems for use, and the external part is exposed to natural wear and the replacement period is determined for five years" , - clarifies the president of the association.

Now almost all systems are imported, but there are exceptions, for example, kits of the St. Petersburg scientific-production company "Azimut". The company develops, produces and delivers endoscopic, endovideosurgical equipment, ENT cabinets and endoscopes for Russian hospitals, polyclinics and outpatient clinics. Within the framework of the program "I hear the world!" Since 2009, the company has set up the production of a set for cochlear implantation "Azimuth", which includes implants of the Austrian company MED-EL. In 2012, the company developed its own waterproof processor "Lira", the technical solutions of which are protected by two patents. In total, "Azimuth" produced about 500 sets for cochlear implantation, which are 25-30% cheaper than foreign analogues.

Also, the parent association "I hear the world!", notes Dmitry Kulikov , assists in the realization of the right to free acquisition of technical means of rehabilitation, appeals to state authorities and local self-government in order to establish cooperation with state bodies and social services for solving issues related to the rehabilitation of children, helps specialists in the development of guidelines for parents and doctors and promotes further education for children with hearing problems.

Among other tasks is assistance in attracting funds from charity funds, Russian and foreign sponsors for conferences for the participants of the association and specialists, holidays, sporting events, as well as various competitions for the members of the association.


Источник: newspaper KOMMERSANT



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