The smallest and lightest behind-the-ear cochlear implant sound processor available has a new feature that is providing some fantastic results for patients.

ForwardFocus is a new technology available, exclusively, in the award-winning Nucleus 7 Sound Processor. The Nucleus 7 Sound Processor already benefits from Cochlear’s industry-leading SmartSound iQ with SCAN and dual microphone technology, which is designed to help people to hear more clearly in any environment. From a busy restaurant to outdoors in blustering wind, the technology prioritises voices over background sounds in a noisy environment. The addition of ForwardFocus gives wearers further rear-facing noise reduction control for those really challenging noisy environments.

Esti Nel, Cochlear’s Principal Research Audiologist explains how the new feature works, “ForwardFocus works by dynamically comparing signals from front and backto give patients on average more than 30% better hearing in situations with distracting noise behind them.” Nel continues, “As clinicians know, not all patients want or need so much control of their hearing. For some, the benefits of SmartSound iQ and SCAN are more than enough for their everyday lives. ForwardFocus is designed for patients who can recognise challenging situations and reliably turn ForwardFocus on and off as they need it. Patients also need to be able to position themselves so that the distracting sounds are situated behind them. For the right patients, ForwardFocus is a fantastic technology they can use to improve their listening experience.”

Roger Smith is a Senior Product Manager for Cochlear and a Nucleus 7 Sound Processor wearer. He explains how the system works for him. “Speaking as a recipient, using the SCAN program I can hear really well in the vast majority of situations but sometimes I find myself missing a few words or using a lot of energy to stay in a conversation. It’s in these challenging situations that ForwardFocus makes a huge difference. By reducing the distracting noise behind me, it’s much easier to hear, with less effort. And because it’s so easy to turn on and off using the Nucleus Smart App, I find myself using it a lot.”

Esti Nel is delighted with how much benefit ForwardFocus is providing in testing and she is keen to ensure clinicians enable this feature in their patients’ Nucleus 7 Sound Processors, “I would encourage clinicians to enable ForwardFocus for patients that can use it correctly, encouraging them to try it in different noisy environments and to see for themselves how helpful it can be.”

For more information, visit cochlear.com.