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10/26/2019  |   1:00 PM - 2:15 PM   |  Ventana Ballroom B

Empowering families for success in a non-profit cochlear implant program

In the late 1980's when we started our cochlear implant program, we had no way to finance the prostheses through the national health system or through private insurance. We therefore set up a non-profit organization to obtain funding. The organization grew steadily into a program which now has provided more than 1000 cochlear implants through different means, has developed training programs for speech therapists, educational programs for parents and teachers, and training for audiologists and surgeons. However, during the first 10 years the whole organization consisted of only two persons (the surgeon and the audiologist), and depended heavily on the families of candidates as volunteers to search for funding. We also achieved a formal agreement with a public hospital which gives our organization access to the operating room facilities allowing us to provide surgical services. In 2006 cochlear implants started to be provided by a government program called “Seguro Popular”; this has provided implants for around 1000 patients with no need for active fundraising on their part, in around 20 centers throughout the country. Although unfortunately there is no formal centralized follow-up for all patients implanted through the government program, there is evidence which suggests that the rate of non-users is significantly higher than that seen in our own program. We present these findings and suggest that the lack of compliance is at least partly due to an inverse Endownment Effect (a type of bias described in economics by nobel prize laureate Richard Thaler) After this presentation attendees should be able to understand our methodology in recruiting low income family and patient efforts towards obtaining the best results in our cochlear implant patients, as well as how we have joined public and private efforts toward than means.

• Understand our methodology in recruiting low income family and patient efforts towards obtaining the best results in our cochlear implant patients
• Undestand how we have joined public and private efforts in our program

Presentation:
18369_12317GonzaloCorvera.pdf
18369_12317GonzaloCorvera_1.pdf

Handouts:
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Gonzalo Corvera (POC,Primary Presenter,Author), Instituto Mexicano de Otología y Neurotología, gcb@amaoir.org;
Degree in Medicine in 1983 and Otolaryngology in 1988 from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, fellowship training in ear and cranial base surgery at Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Purpan, Toulouse, France, 1991. Mexican Board certified in Otolaryngology- Head and Neck Surgery and Neuro-Otology. Co-founder in 1993 and current director of “Instituto Mexicano de Otología y Neurotología, SC”, founder and president of “Asociación Mexicana para la Audición

ASHA DISCLOSURE: Financial - No relevant financial relationship exists. Nonfinancial - No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.

AAA DISCLOSURE: Financial - No relevant financial relationship exists.