Ellis Douek (born 1934) is a British surgeon and

cochlear implant A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted neuroprosthesis that provides a person who has moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss with sound perception. With the help of therapy, cochlear implants may allow for improved speech und ...

pioneer.

Early life

He was born in

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

, Egypt, in 1934, the son of Cesar Elie Douek and his wife Nelly Sassoon. His parents were both from Syrian-Jewish merchant families, and he grew up in

Zamalek Zamalek ( ar, الزمالك , ''al zamalek'') is an affluent district of western Cairo encompassing the northern portion of Gezira Island in the Nile River. The island is connected with the river banks through three bridges each on the east an ...

, Cairo, with his sister Claudia, and brother Zaki.

Career

* Fellow of the

Royal College of Surgeons The Royal College of Surgeons is an ancient college (a form of corporation) established in England to regulate the activity of surgeons. Derivative organisations survive in many present and former members of the Commonwealth. These organisations a ...

Who's Who 2017, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2017; http://www.ukwhoswho.com * Consultant Otologist, 1970–99, now Emeritus,

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science centre. ...

* Chairman, Hearing Research Group, 1974–99, Guy's Hospital * Member

Medical Research Council (United Kingdom) The Medical Research Council (MRC) is responsible for co-coordinating and funding medical research in the United Kingdom. It is part of United Kingdom Research and Innovation (UKRI), which came into operation 1 April 2018, and brings together t ...

working party on Hearing Research, 1975 * Medical Research Council Representative to European Communities on Hearing Research 1980 * UK Representative to European Communities on Industrial Deafness 1983 * Dalby Prize for hearing research,

Royal Society of Medicine The Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) is a medical society in the United Kingdom, headquartered in London. History The Society was established in 1805 as Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, meeting in two rooms in barristers’ chambers ...

, 1978

Cochlear implants

"During the 1970s, a group in the United Kingdom, headed by Ellis Douek, began experimenting with an extracochlear electrode that was stationed on the promontory near the round window ... this device created a great deal of interest because it was judge to be the more conservative, less invasive, approach." "In Britain ... all started in the early 1970s, soon after Ellis Douek's appointment to a senior ear, nose and throat post at London’s Guy's Hospital. The Department of Health, prompted by a deafened Member of Parliament active on behalf of the disabled (

Jack Ashley Jack Ashley, Baron Ashley of Stoke, (6 December 1922 – 20 April 2012) was a British politician. He was a Labour Member of Parliament in the House of Commons for Stoke-on-Trent South for 26 years, from 1966 to 1992, and subsequently sat in t ...

, now Lord Ashley), suggested to Douek that his speciality was doing far too little on sensorineural deafness, and why didn't he do something in that area?"

Autobiographies

Douek is the author of the autobiography ''A Middle Eastern Affair'' (2004) , and the medical memoir ''To Hear Again, To Sing Again'' (2022).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Douek, Ellis Living people 1934 births British surgeons Egyptian emigrants to England Egyptian Jews Physicians from Cairo