MichaelSeufer

Identifier

Patient CI3

Trial

Envoy Medical Acclaim · Early Feasibility Study

Center

Mayo Clinic · Rochester, Minnesota

Surgeon

Colin Driscoll, MD

Implanted

November 4, 2022

Activated

December 5, 2022

Distinction

The only one of the original three trial participants able to use the device entirely on its own, without the backup of a traditional hearing aid or any other external hardware.

Resides

Columbus, Ohio

Profession

UX/UI Designer · 20+ years federal and enterprise

Michael was selected for the early feasibility study of the Envoy Medical Acclaim in August 2022 and implanted three months later, on November 4, 2022, by Dr. Colin Driscoll, MD at Mayo Clinic. Three patients were implanted in the early feasibility study within the same window; surgery order was scheduling, not ranking. As the published outcomes paper documents, Michael is the only one of the three to use the device in its novel state · no hearing aid, no external hardware of any kind. He has not worn a hearing aid in either ear since 2022.

Outside the trial, Michael is a UX/UI Designer with twenty years of work across federal, defense, and enterprise programs. FDA, USMC, DoD, USAF, DLA, Ohio State University, Nationwide Insurance. His design portfolio and career record are documented at michaelseufer.com.

He has been an ice hockey goaltender since the age of ten, the same travel-team years Grandpa rode along to. He played college football at Ohio Wesleyan University. Earlier in his career he worked in television in Hollywood at E! Entertainment, and as a contract web designer at KTWB-TV in Seattle.

He is the father of one son, Mickey, who turned fourteen in March 2026 and is the reason Michael applied to the trial in the first place. He is the first grandchild of his maternal grandfather, called Grandpa in this documentary, who carried the same hearing loss the Acclaim is now refining away. The full family story is told in The Journey.

The Letter

On the occasion of his retirement from Mayo Clinic in May 2026 after twenty-seven years, the trial’s senior surgeon wrote to Seufer directly. He gave explicit permission for the letter to be published.

A special ‘thank you’ for being a pioneer in the development of the Envoy Acclaim cochlear implant and for the trust you placed in me and the Mayo Clinic team. You played a critically important role in the refinement of the device, it could not have been done without you. It has been an absolute privilege to be a part of your medical journey, thank you for taking me along.

Letter from Dr. Colin Driscoll, MD, Mayo Clinic, May 2026. Published in full on this site with the writer’s explicit permission.