Western receives $8.5M donation from MED-EL, establishes two endowed research chairs

Western University has received an $8.5M donation from hearing implant company MED-EL that will improve care for patients with hearing loss. Western matched the gift to establish endowed research chairs in neurotology and translational hearing innovation. The chairs will be held by Dr Sumit Agrawal and Hanif Ladak, who will focus on customizing cochlear implant programming to improve the sound quality and listening experience for patients. “[The donation from MED-EL is] creating opportunities that will evolve the cochlear implant technology further to improve outcomes for patients,” said Ladak. “As a biomedical engineer, being able to impact patients at this scale is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”