Graeme Clark (doctor)

Graeme Milbourne Clark ( born August 16, 1935 in Australia) is an Australian ENT physician and surgeon who was instrumental in the development of the cochlear implant.

Clark wanted early on, after he witnessed in the ear, nose and throat medicine as a teenager as his father became deaf. He studied medicine at the University of Sydney ( Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, MBBS 1957). In 1961 he continued his studies in the UK and went to the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital. After returning to Australia he had with colleagues an ear, nose and throat practice in Melbourne. But he soon came (1966 ) to the University of Sydney to conduct research on cochlear implant. In 1969 he received his doctorate ( Middle Ear and Neural Mechanisms in Hearing and in the Management of Deafness ) and acquired in the same year his Master of Surgery. In 1970 he became a professor at the University of Melbourne (Professor of Otolaryngology and Head of the Department ). In 2004, he went into retirement. In 1983 he founded the Bionic Ear Institute, whose director he was.

He showed that with a few electrodes in the cochlea ( cochlear ) in the inner ear due to irritation of the nerves responsible auditory impression could be created. In 1978 at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital, the first Cochleaimplantatation by him and Brian Pyman on the patient Rod Saunders, who had lost his hearing at age 46. To him the proper signal setting for the cochlear implant could now be studied, where he worked with his post-doctoral Yit Chow Tong. The development was successful and in 1982 began clinical tests. In 1985 he also began with implants in children and 1990, the cochlear implant received approval by the U.S. FDA.

The development of cochlear implants happened in Australia when founded in 1981 Cochlear Ltd..

In 1970 he was instrumental in the founding of the Deafness Foundation of Victoria.

In 1985 he received the Science Award of the Australian Prime Minister. In 1997 he was Officer and 1999 Companion of the Order of Australia. In 2004 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1998 and the Australian Academy of Science. In 2004 he was awarded the Prime Minister 's Prize for Science, 2007 with the Zülch Prize, 2010 with the Lister Medal and 2013 Lasker ~ DeBakey with the Clinical Medical Research Award.

Writings

  • Cochlear Implants: Fundamentals and Applications, Springer Verlag 2003
  • Sounds from Silence, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2000 ( autobiography)
Food and Drug Administration Integrated Authority File
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