Johan H.M. Frijns is an ENT consultant and professor of Otology and Auditory Physics, head of the Center for Audiology and Hearing Implants Leiden (CAHIL) and of the LUMC Expertise Center for Rare Ear Diseases. From 2005 to 2023 he was also a trainer of the ENT residents in the Leiden OOR. He is also Medical Delta professor of Electrical Stimulation of the Human Nervous System with a part-time appointment at the EEMCS faculty of TU Delft. In 1995 he received the ENT annual prize for scientific research and in 1996 the C.J. Kok Prize from Leiden University. Since 2006 he has been a Dutch member of the Collegium Otorhinolaryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum (CORLAS).

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Johan H.M. Frijns is an ENT consultant and professor of Otology and Auditory Physics, head of the Center for Audiology and Hearing Implants Leiden (CAHIL) and of the LUMC Expertise Center for Rare Ear Diseases. From 2005 to 2023 he was also a trainer of the ENT residents in the Leiden OOR. He is also Medical Delta professor of Electrical Stimulation of the Human Nervous System with a part-time appointment at the EEMCS faculty of TU Delft. In 1995 he received the ENT annual prize for scientific research and in 1996 the C.J. Kok Prize from Leiden University. Since 2006 he has been a Dutch member of the Collegium Otorhinolaryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum (CORLAS).

Otology and Auditory Physics

Within the (neuro-)otology/audiology focus of the department of Otorhinolaryngology, my research focuses mainly on otology and auditory physics with special attention to cochlear implants. These are electrical inner ear prostheses, with which deaf and severely hearing-impaired children and adults can be brought into contact with the hearing and speaking world (again or for the first time in their lives). The research is embedded in the LUMC innovation theme Neuroscience, the Medical Delta and the national consortium NeuroTech-NL. My aim is to translate the results of fundamental research (e.g., computer modeling, use of artificial intelligence, electrophysiology, psychophysics and imaging) into clinically applicable methods and techniques (e.g., new speech processing strategies or electrode designs), and then evaluate them through clinical scientific research. For this, a multidisciplinary clinical setting such as ours is indispensable and my dual background as a medical specialist and physicist comes in handy, just like in the collaboration with TU Delft in the context of the Medical Delta and the bachelor Clinical Technology and master Technical Medicine (joint programs of the LUMC, the Erasmus MC and TU Delft).

Academic Career

In 1979, Johan H.M. Frijns (1961, The Hague) completed his final exams at Gymnasium-B and started studying Applied Physics at Delft University of Technology, where he obtained his doctoral diploma cum laude in 1983 with a thesis entitled Development of non-periodic stimuli for and investigation of the Binaural Edge Pitch in the Acoustic Perception department (Prof. Dr. Ir. F.A. Bilsen). In 1988 he also passed his medical examination with honors at Leiden University. In September of that year, he started his PhD research into cochlear implants at the ENT department of what is now called the LUMC (department head: Prof. Dr. P.H. Schmidt). In the period 1989-1994 he trained there as an ENT doctor and afterwards he remained associated with this clinic as a staff member. On May 24, 1995, he obtained his PhD cum laude with a thesis entitled Cochlear Implants – A Modeling Approach (supervisor Prof.Dr. J.J. Grote, Leiden and co-supervisor Dr. J.H. ten Kate, Delft). For this he received the 1995 annual prize from the Dutch ENT Association and the second prize (1995-1996) from the Dutch Association for Biophysics.

Clinically, he sub-specialized in (neuro-)otology. In 1999, building on a growing translational research program in this area, he started the Leiden cochlear implant program, which has now provided more than 1,500 children and adults with a cochlear implant (CI) or a auditory brain stem implant (ABI), with results that are among the best in the world.

Frijns is a lecturer in the Medicine and Technical Medicine courses, a number of post-academic courses, has been involved in the organization of various international conferences and is a member of the editorial board of several scientific journals.

In 2005 he became professor by special appointment of Otology and Hearing Physics at Leiden University on behalf of the Heinsius-Houbolt Fund, converted into a full professorship in January 2006. The title of his inaugural lecture (17 February 2006) was Leids KNOOPpunt. In November 2023, he was also appointed part-time professor of Electrical Stimulation of the Human Nervous System at TU Delft in the context of the collaboration in the Medical Delta.

Prizes and honourable appointments

Johan H.M. Frijns received the 1994 C.J. Kok award from the Leiden University and the 1995 annual research award from the Dutch Society of Otorhinolaryngology. Since 2006 he is a Dutch delegate of the Collegium Otorhinolaryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum.

Publications