Almost 750 million people worldwide
suffer from tinnitus, 14% of the world's adult population, according to a
meta-analysis published in 2022. This pathology, also known as tinnitus,
consists of hearing a ringing or other noise in one or both ears. This constant
sound is not external and other people do not hear it. It can cause sleep
problems, headaches, difficulty concentrating and damage the person's mental
health. Age and continued exposure to loud noises are risk factors for
tinnitus.
Faced with this widespread health
problem, Giannina Ofelia Honorio, an industrial engineer from the Catholic
University of Peru with a master's degree in neuroscience, created the Tinnitus
Peru research center. This initiative has developed technology to improve the
quality of life of people with tinnitus. Honorio is a volunteer firefighter in
Peru and knows firsthand how some occupations favor the onset of tinnitus. The
potential of this breakthrough for people who suffer from constant noise has
made Honorio one of MIT Technology Review's Innovators Under 35 Latin America
2023 in Spanish.
The young woman has developed an
electronic system that characterizes the type of tinnitus the patient has. With
that information, she designs an auditory training therapy to reduce the
perception of tinnitus. In the absence of a pharmacological cure, the objective
of Tinnitus Peru is to improve the quality of life of patients, according to
the innovator.
The system emits sound signals with
different frequency spectra. Thus, it diagnoses the type of sound the person
hears. The young innovator explains: "We customize and design new
processes that reduce costs and improve existing treatments that only attack
the symptoms and not the cause." Both the hardware and the software have been
created by Honorio: "There are no similar technologies."
Treatment is possible remotely
through its digital platform. Honorio's innovation offers support during the
rehabilitation process and generates improvements between 8 and 14 sessions.
The patient reduces the perception of sound or stops hearing it for months," she says.
After achieving positive results in
hundreds of patients, the device is currently under patent in Peru. Once it is
implemented throughout the country, the young woman wants to expand this
treatment for tinnitus to other countries such as Chile and Mexico. Honorio
goes beyond the well-being of the patient herself, "The friends and
relatives of hearing-impaired people are also beneficiaries because with the
comprehensive support process we offer, we improve the quality of inter-family
relationships. In many cases we also increase the level of independence of the
hearing-impaired person," she explains.
