Road to Alone: World Hearing Day campaign highlights the life-changing impact of hearing loss

Mar 3, 2018

To mark World Hearing Day (3 March 2018), MED-EL has launched a new global campaign to raise awareness of the significant impact that hearing loss can have on people’s lives.

March 3, 2018 - (Innsbruck, Austria) - Called Road to Alone, the campaign film follows one woman’s journey through hearing loss as she gradually becomes disconnected from the world around her. It then contrasts this with the bright future she sees after receiving treatment. It is hoped this will encourage people who think they may recognise symptoms of hearing loss to seek further advice from a medical professional.



Hearing loss affects over five per cent of the world’s population with 360 million people currently living with disabling hearing loss worldwide. In addition, many more are not even aware of the symptoms and so remain undiagnosed. 

On average, people in the UK wait 10 years between identifying symptoms and taking steps to address their hearing loss. This year’s theme for World Hearing Day is ‘Hear the Future and Be Prepared for It’, which draws attention towards the anticipated increase in the number of people with hearing loss globally and the preventive strategies, including hearing implants, that are required to stem the rise.

“Over the last four decades MED-EL has had the privilege of seeing how our hearing implants have enhanced the lives of people with hearing loss in so many ways”
Patrick D‘Haese, Corporate Director of Awareness and Public Affairs at MED-EL comments, “Over the last four decades MED-EL has had the privilege of seeing how our hearing implants have enhanced the lives of people with hearing loss in so many ways, enabling them to reconnect with the hearing world around them. More needs to be done however, particularly to improve global access to and awareness of the full range of hearing solutions available to people living with hearing loss.

MED-EL is proud to support the World Health Organization’s efforts with a film that truly captures the life-changing impact of hearing loss and profound benefits of early identification followed by appropriate diagnosis and treatment.” 

Visit www.roadtoalone.com for information on MED-EL’s contribution to addressing hearling loss globally.

About MED-EL

MED-EL Medical Electronics, a leader in implantable hearing solutions, is driven by a mission to overcome hearing loss as a barrier to communication. The Austrian-based, privately owned business was co-founded by industry pioneers Ingeborg and Erwin Hochmair, whose ground-breaking research led to the development of the world’s first micro-electronic multi-channel cochlear implant (CI), which was successfully implanted in 1977 and was the basis for what is known as the modern CI today. This laid the foundation for the successful growth of the company in 1990, when they hired their first employees. To date, MED-EL has grown to more than 1,900 employees and 30 subsidiaries worldwide.

The company offers the widest range of implantable and non-implantable solutions to treat all types of hearing loss, enabling people in 121 countries enjoy the gift of hearing with the help of a MED-EL device. MED-EL’s hearing solutions include cochlear and middle ear implant systems, a combined Electric Acoustic Stimulation hearing implant system, auditory brainstem implants as well as surgical and non-surgical bone conduction devices. www.medel.com

CEO

Doz. DI Dr DDr med. h.c. Ingeborg Hochmair

Press contact

Thomas Herrmann
MED-EL Medical Electronics 
Fürstenweg 77a 
6020 Innsbruck 
Austria

T: +43 5 7788 5182
E: [email protected]
www.medel.com

Icon_ContactPress Contact

T: +43 5 7788-0
E: [email protected]
www.medel.com