SBIR/STTR Research Award
Empowering Rural Health: Culturally informed speech therapy training for community health workers
Award amount
$125,000Program and phase
STTR · Phase IAward year
2024Award details
- Awarding agency
- Department of Agriculture
- Branch
- National Institute of Food and Agriculture
- Recipient company
- TUTELA INSTITUTE LLC
- Proposal award date
- 2024-03-04
- Contract end date
- 2025-06-30
- UEI
- XYHMKHQJLBN3
- Solicitation number
- USDA-NIFA-SBIR-009962
- Topic code
- 8.6
Research abstract
servicesworsenedbyacriticalshortageofspeech-languagepathologistsnationwide.Thishasledto
considerableandcostlydelaysintheinitiationoftreatmentforchildreninneedincludingthoseinthe
crucialdevelopmentalphasefrombirthto3yearsofagewhorequireearlyinterventionservices.
Ourgoalistoprovethefeasibilityofanovelservicedeliverymodelthatempowerscommunityhealth
workerstoprovidetailoredsupporttounderservedruralfamilies.
Usingadual-prongedapproachtoaddresstheshortageofspeechtherapyserviceswewill:
- Developculturallyandlinguisticallytailoredonlinecontentforparentsfocusedonearly
languageandliteracydevelopment.
- Developacomprehensivevirtualtrainingprogramtoequipcommunityhealthworkerswith
theskillsandknowledgenecessarytodeliverthiscontent.
Wewillthenpilotthisnovelservicedeliverymodelandprovefeasibilityassessingtheimpacton
ruralcommunities.
ThisprojectiswellalignedwithTopic8.6asitwillimprovethequalityoflifeinruralAmericaby
creatingandcommercializingtechnologythataddressesimportanteconomicandsocialdevelopment
issuesandchallenges.Wewillincreasetheavailabilityandqualityofearlyinterventionservicesin
ruralareaswithacost-effectivescalableprogramaddressinghealthdisparitiesinunderservedareas.
Withnearly1.3millionchildrendiagnosedwithspeechandlanguageissuesin2022aloneup136%
forchildrenbirthtotwoyearsoldthecommercialopportunitiesandpositiveimpactofourmodelare
substantial.
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Technology keywords
Not reported
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