Roles
- Director, Hearing Implant Program
- Professor, Clinical Otolaryngology
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Biography
Meredith Holcomb, AuD, CCC-A is a Professor and the Director of the Hearing Implant Program at the University of Miami Ear Institute. She brings over two decades of comprehensive clinical experience with cochlear implants across the lifespan. Dr. Holcomb received her Doctorate of Audiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2006. She previously served as the Clinical Director of the Cochlear Implant Program at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Holcomb is the first woman and first audiologist to chair the American Cochlear Implant Alliance (ACIA). She is the current Co-chair of the Joint Committee on Infant Hearing (JCIH). Dr. Holcomb also serves as a consultant for Cochlear, Med El, Advanced Bionics, and Akouos; and, she is a faculty member for the Institute for Cochlear Implant Training (ICIT) courses.
Dr. Holcomb's scholarly contributions include over 60 peer-reviewed publications addressing topics ranging from cochlear implant programming optimization to bimodal hearing configurations, access to care, and outcome management. She has lectured at numerous national and international conferences addressing cochlear implantation, outcome management, access to care, and clinical efficiency. Dr. Holcomb is a co-author of the Minimum Speech Test Battery, Version 3 (MSTB-3), which includes test protocols for identifying CI candidates and evaluating CI outcomes. Her research and leadership have helped shape the standard of care and best practice guidelines for cochlear implantation. -
Education & Training
Education
Post Graduate Training
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Honors & Awards
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Teaching Interests
pediatric and adult cochlear implantation, pediatric audiology diagnostics -
Research Interests
cochlear implant outcomes, cochlear implant clinical efficiency -
Publications
Disclaimer: Information presented in this section has been consolidated using AI and machine learning technologies. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, errors may occur. If you identify any inaccuracies, use this link to inform our data team. Your feedback is appreciated and helps us improve the quality of our content.
Articles & News
Cochlear Implant Access for Spanish-Speaking Patients
How Patient Navigation Is Transforming Hearing Loss Care at UHealth
University of Miami Experts Advance Cochlear Implant Care at ACIA 2026 Meeting
Disclaimer:
Information presented in this section has been consolidated using AI and machine learning technologies. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, errors may occur. If you identify any inaccuracies, use this link to inform our data team. Your feedback is appreciated and helps us improve the quality of our content.
Clinical Trials
Viewing 0 of 2 clinical trials.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged all healthcare systems to implement innovative service delivery models in order to meet patients needs and financial benchmarks to prevent furloughs. This has been particularly challenging for audiology and cochlear implant programs, where policies were not previously developed, and reimbursement was a concern. The University of Miami has offered telehealth services for rehabilitation since 2016. Thus, we were quickly able to transition many of our multidisciplinary services to a virtual clinic platform. Since March 2020, our team-based virtual clinic has allowed us to continue serving the needs of our pediatric cochlear implant candidates, including counseling, speech and language services, and educational consultations. Despite the positive clinical impact this has made for our families, reimbursement continues to be limited for audiology and no studies have reported data on the effectiveness of a remote programming CI clinic model. Initially, telemedicine in healthcare was developed as a solution to improve access to specialists for those who lived in rural and/or remote areas. However, individuals would have to travel to a clinic where they would have their remote visit. Thus, this form of telemedicine continues to have significant barriers, including lack of professional healthcare providers, lack of health insurance coverage, distance and transportation to clinics, amongst many others (Bush et al., 2017). This approach does not provide the same access to care for minorities. Consistent evidence has shown that low socioeconomic status is the most frequently cited and consistent contributor to later access to cochlear implantation and associated with worse post-implantation outcomes (Sorkin & Zwolan, 2008; Umans & Suskind, 2016). A recent national survey of audiologists reported that SES-related disparities were the most likely to reduce speech and language outcomes post-implantation (Kirkham et al., 2009). Thus, through our remote platform, our patients will have access to our audiological team from their home. This new model of service delivery will likely help to ameliorate health disparities in cochlear implant access and care.
- Principal Investigator: Meredith Holcomb
- Study Phase: N/A
- Enrollment Status: Closed
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The purpose of this research study is to examine the safety and effectiveness of cochlear implantation in an expanded population of adults who do not meet the current FDA indications.
- Principal Investigator: Meredith Holcomb
- Study Phase: TBD
- Enrollment Status: Not Accepting