Development of a Telehealth Platform for Treatment with the SpeechVive Device

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant The majority of people with Parkinsonandapos s disease PD experience communication impairments which impact all aspects of daily life leading to social isolation and reduced quality of life Because of difficulties in accessing speech therapy only a very small percentage of people with PD participate in these treatments during their disease An easily accessible and cost effective communication treatment for individuals with PD is needed The SpeechVive device developed by SpeechVive Inc provides a solution that meets the criteria for ease of use and effectiveness In an NIH funded study the SpeechVive device improved communication in of individuals with PD by improved speech volume articulation and or speech rate The SpeechVive device is set for the patient in person reducing the potential for wide adoption due to the difficulties patients face accessing healthcare The overall goal of this Direct to Phase II SBIR project is to develop a tele health platform for the SpeechVive device to improve accessibility for people with PD To accomplish this goal the following aims will be accomplished Aim Develop a web based portal coupled with a HIPAA compliant database to facilitate use in medical facilities Aim Develop a tele health platform providing video capabilities and functionality for remote programming of the SpeechVive device for each patient and Aim Examine the patient and caregiver satisfaction with and responsiveness to tele practice using the SpeechVive device The web portal will be the first step in developing the tele health platform Beta tests will demonstrate functionality an obtain feedback from speech language pathologists SLPs Successful implementation of this aim will result in a complete web based portal available on the internet During Aim SpeechVive Inc will develop an iPad application to facilitate speech tele practice The application will interface with the web portal developed in Aim Beta tests will demonstrate functionality and obtain feedback from people with PD and SLPs Successful implementation of this aim will result in a complete and functioning application During Aim SpeechVive Inc will conduct a study of satisfaction quality of life financial travel and caregiver burden and responsiveness perceived competence speech change in patients receiving SpeechVive treatment face to face as compared to SpeechVive treatment via tele practice Successfully completing these Aims will lead to commercialization of a tele health platform for use with the SpeechVive device This SBIR grant will allow SpeechVive Inc to address a critical need for an easily accessible and cost effective communication treatment for people with PD allowing over SLPs in the U S to connect regularly with this growing population PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE Individuals with Parkinsonandapos s disease PD suffer from communication impairments that impact all aspects of daily life leading to social isolation and reduced quality of life Due to limited access to speech therapy only a very small percentage of people with PD receive treatment SpeechVive Inc will develop a tele health platform including an iPad application to interface with its SpeechVive device to facilitate speech tele practice Thi will help to increase the number of people with PD that receive speech therapy and in turn improve their quality of life