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MAKING WAVES
WITH ADVANCED AUDITORY TECH
Increased awareness is important: “Although cochlear implants can restore hearing in patients with severe hearing loss, there remains a lack of awareness that this technology exists.”
– ENT surgeon Dr. Walter Kutz
As a biomedical device company passionate about improving the lives of individuals through better aural technologies, Qualia Oto utilizes our core innovations to produce top-quality, shape-changing polymers and matrix-addressed electrode arrays embedded in devices for individuals' medical and personal needs.
OUR TECHNOLOGIES
AUDITORY /
Multiplexed TFT Arrays
Through photolithographic microfabrication processes, Qualia Oto is developing novel multiplexed thin-film transistor (TFT) arrays on our proprietary polymer substrates. Our technology enables higher channel count cochlear implants and auditory brainstem implants for more precise auditory nerve stimulation and the eventual incorporation of more complex, machine learning-based stimulation.
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AUDITORY /
Shape-changing Polymers
Do you appreciate a rubber band's expansions and contractions? Now imagine the ability to twist, extend, and restructure the shapes of plastics indefinitely, resetting to their original forms only at a specifically designed temperature. Our unique polymers, when heated to body temperature, can take the shape of the cochlea, thereby delving deeper and fitting tighter within the inner ear.
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MEDICAL /
Microtip Drug Delivery
We are designing arrays of biocompatible, dissolvable microtips that will deliver drugs to the inner ear with μm spatial precision and μL dosing capabilities. Doing so will provide a more consistent and reliable method of drug delivery for successful treatment. In addition, these microtips will be able to bypass current inner-ear space limitations and the related surgical complexity.
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MEET QUALIA OTO
Qualia Oto's team of researchers, engineers, physicians, academics, and business leaders provides the company a unique ability to produce the next-generation materials and devices demanded by the global auditory market.
OUR SNAPSHOT
Our three co-founders started Qualia Oto in 2017 based on research and expertise from their academic and medical careers. That fall, co-founder Dr. Kenneth Lee (MD-PhD) was the keynote speaker at the Asia Pacific Symposium on Cochlear Implants, earning industry recognition and a first contract for the company the following year. Since then, Qualia Oto's growth has included expanded industry services, onboarding clinical expert advisors, conducting international research, submitting national grants, and expanding the team and board.
HEARING THE FUTURE
The World Health Organization estimates that 5% of the global population has some form of disabling hearing loss. That's 466 million individuals who need solutions – a number expected to nearly double over the coming three decades. Qualia Oto is positioned to push forward aural solutions, whether through improved capacities of cochlear implants or auditory brainstem implants, superior inner-ear drug delivery methods, or individually tailored auditory devices such as hearing aids, earbuds, and earphones.
