‘Hearing implant’ is a general term for a variety of medical devices that are implanted to improve hearing and include cochlear, auditory brainstem, bone conduction implants, and middle ear implants. Cochlear implants are the world’s most successful neuro-prosthesis, although some may fail and are recalled across the UK’s four manufacturers. There are around 25,000 cochlear implant users in the UK, spanning all ages, with around 1,500 new implant procedures conducted a year.

Many factors contribute to the outcomes of hearing implants, such as device choice, surgical technique, rehabilitation, patient age and motivation and the cause and duration of deafness.

The National Registry of Hearing Implants (NRHI) supports the monitoring of outcomes and adverse events throughout patients’ lifetimes, to better understand how they vary in different patient groups and populations and with this understanding improve patient benefits and service user engagement.

About the NRHI

The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care directs NHS England to operate the NRHI.

The NRHI lies within the implantable device-level modular framework of the Medical Devices Outcomes Registry (MDOR), which was established in 2024 to fulfil Recommendation 7 of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety (IMMDS) Review: First do no harm (Cumberlege Review) to improve patient safety and outcomes and reduce variation in clinical practice associated with procedures involving implantable medical devices.

To fulfil the recommendations of the Cumberlege Review and Paterson Inquiry, the NRHI captures data relating to preoperative assessments, procedure, complications and postoperative assessments after 1 and 5 years in relation to:

• cochlear implants
• auditory brainstem implants
• bone conduction implants (both active and passive)
• middle ear implants

All healthcare organisations, including independent sector organisations, that provide NHS-funded care and undertake surgical or interventional procedures involving a Class IIb or III implantable medical device must comply with the requirement to submit data to NHS England. Independent sector organisations that provide privately-funded care for the same procedures may submit data to NHS England on a voluntary basis.

NRHI data collection

Data submissions to the NRHI started in March 2025 and are collected via the Outcomes and Registries Clinical Application. Access to this system is via an approved account and requires log in.

Data is collected daily and can be entered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The collection is ongoing with no end date.

Supporting documentation

More information on the NRHI and the wider work on the Outcomes and Registries Programme can be found in:

• Outcomes and Registries Directions 2024 outlining the legal requirement from the Secretary of State for NHS England to collect these data
• MDOR requirements specification detailing what providers in scope must do to comply with the mandate to submit data
• MDOR data specification defining what data fields are to be collected to fulfil the legal requirement
• MDOR data provision notice detailing the legal instruction to providers in scope to submit data
• MDOR transparency notice informing data subjects (patients and the public) how and why NHS England collects, uses, stores and shares their personal data

Enquiries

For NRHI general enquiries and technical support from the Outcome Registries Clinical Application liaison team, please contact england.support.outcomeregistries@nhs.net