MONEY TODAY | Jun-young Ryu
May 13, 2024
According to industry estimates, around 60 million people globally suffer from severe hearing loss that requires cochlear implant surgery. Severe hearing loss, classified as the inability to hear sounds below 70 decibels, means individuals may not hear a doorbell or knock in a quiet home. Hearing aids often fail to assist at this level, leading specialists to recommend cochlear implants. This device stimulates the auditory nerve directly by placing electrodes in the cochlea, yet many patients resist the surgery due to the inconveniences associated with it.
Recently, in an interview with Unicorn Factory, Jae-eun Lee, CEO of Bell Therapeutics, remarked, “Sixty years have passed since the invention of the cochlear implant, yet the lengthy, challenging rehabilitation process often discourages patients from undergoing the surgery.” He added, “This issue is a pain point not only for patients but also for medical professionals, cochlear implant manufacturers, and insurers. Our technology has the potential to address these issues at once.”
Bell Therapeutics, a notable bio-healthcare startup, has unveiled a cochlear implant rehabilitation digital therapeutic aimed at significantly shortening the typical 1-2 year rehabilitation period for cochlear implant patients. This is achieved by stimulating the auditory cortex with specialized sound techniques. CEO Jae-eun Lee studied economics at Columbia University and pursued a master’s degree in convergent medicine at Yonsei University’s medical school, with a vision of establishing a venture in the bio-healthcare field.
The traditional rehabilitation process after cochlear implant surgery involves repeated cycles over 1-2 years, including device mapping to adjust to the user’s hearing, language therapy to improve speech recognition, and assessments in language and hearing. This lengthy and repetitive process often leads to patient fatigue, and some discontinue rehabilitation midway.
Above all, spoken language used in traditional rehabilitation has been deemed suboptimal for patients with reduced auditory perception (the brain's ability to interpret sounds received through the ears). Speech is dense with information and complex structures, which can make it challenging for those undergoing rehabilitation to process effectively.
Some in the medical field recommend music as part of hearing rehabilitation, but due to limited research on beneficial music types, selecting suitable pieces has posed challenges for both doctors and patients. CEO Lee noted, “For patients in rehabilitation, typical music can sound like noise; rehabilitation requires specialized music. However, many physicians, not primarily trained in music cognitive science, feel uncertain about what music to recommend.”
Bell Therapeutics decided to address this issue by developing a "music-based hearing rehabilitation digital therapeutic." This resulted in a "customized music playlist for cochlear implant users," tailored to facilitate their rehabilitation.
This specialized playlist uses targeted sound frequencies that address weak auditory ranges for rehabilitation patients. By activating the brain's auditory cortex in a shorter time, this method potentially halves the rehabilitation period. Presented at the "Association for Research in Otolaryngology," this approach has garnered significant interest from the global medical community.
Bell Therapeutics was able to develop a music-based digital therapeutic for hearing rehabilitation by assembling a team of experts across fields, including biomedical engineering, neuroscience, and composition. Among their internal researchers is Dr. Jungmi Park, who earned her bachelor’s, master’s, and doctorate at Seoul National University’s College of Music. She serves as vice president of the Korean Society for Music Perception and Cognition and teaches music neuroscience at Seoul National University.
Additionally, researcher Jiyeon Ha, a biomedical engineer, has conducted EEG studies at KIST and Seoul National University Hospital, focusing primarily on auditory mechanisms. Researcher Wonwoo Lee is a composer and engineer who teaches electronic music at the Korea National University of Arts. He has been studying classification criteria for music tailored to the auditory characteristics of cochlear implant patients.
Bell Therapeutics has initiated clinical trials to verify the effectiveness of its newly developed digital therapeutic for hearing rehabilitation. The trial is led by Professor Byung-Yoon Choi, a renowned otolaryngologist at Bundang Seoul National University Hospital with experience in over 1,000 cochlear implant surgeries. CEO Jae-eun Lee commented, "In addition to hearing rehabilitation, we have developed digital therapeutics for insomnia based on brain science and audio signal processing. We plan to continuously expand our pipeline through partnerships with clinical institutions."