Have you ever wondered what is going on in dysphagia experts’ minds when they are seeing a new patient for the first time? What details do they look out for? What are the rationales for upcoming steps in their clinical management?

For this episode, we invited Dr Ulrike Frank and Dr James Curtis, two experienced clinicians and researchers, presented them a case scenario and accompanied them on their decision-making process through the acute phase until long-term rehabilitative assessment and treatment planning.

Join us and meet Tom, the 84-year old Parkinson’s patient with dysphagia, and find out what Ulrike and James would have done in terms of diagnostic and therapeutic procedures as clinicians of Tom.

The patient Tom is based on a case scenario described in this book (only in German):
Eibl, K. (2019). Kapitel 22: Akinetische Krise mit Dysarthrie und Dysphagie bei Morbus Parkinson. In K. Eibl (Ed.), Fallbuch Sprachtherapie: Neurologie, Geriatrie und Akutrehabilitation (1. Edition, pp. 291–302). Elsevier.

Have you ever hit a paywall and could not access an article without being asked to pay for it? Wouldn’t it be great if all research would be transparent and openly available? 

In this episode we talk about open science in dysphagia research with James Borders. He takes a deep dive into the core practices of open science: pre-registration, self-archiving, gold open access, open data and registered reports. He also discusses the findings of a recent survey on the knowledge, implementation, and perceived benefits and barriers of open science practices in communication science disorders in the US that he has conducted together with his colleagues (click here for the manuscript preprint). And most importantly, James shares valuable tips on how to start making your own research more open and how open science can help not only researchers but also clinicians.

Helpful resources on open science:

In this episode we speak with Kristin, whose daughter Mackenzie had severe swallowing difficulties. Kristin talks openly about their journey from the first cough and choke until a diagnosis and treatment. She also shares the struggles of not getting information but how the internet could help her. She also gives some pretty good advice to all clinicians working with kids with feeding and swallowing difficulties.

SPOILER ALERT: Do not look at the resources linked below if you do not want to find out the underlying cause before listening to the episode!

Dear English speaking listeners: this is part 2 of our German episode. We will return later in August with English episodes.

Im zweiten Teil unseres Gesprächs zu “Dysphagie bei Menschen mit ALS” mit Ulrich Birkmann geht es um die Therapie von Dysphagien und wie wir unseren Fokus bei der Behandlung von reaktiv auf proaktiv lenken können. Wer Ulis tolles Projekt “Dysphagie 2 Go” zusammen mit Yasemin (immer) noch nicht kennt, sollte unbedingt mal auf ihrer Homepage vorbeischauen. Hier gibt es regelmäßig spannende, kompakte online Webinare.

Literatur und Webseiten, die in der Episode genannt werden:

Tipp: Mit unpaywall.org hast du Zugriff auf die Artikel von Plowman et al. (2016) und Rogu-Pulia & Plowman (2020).

Dear English speaking listeners: this episode is in German. We will be back with English episodes in August.

Anlässlich der diesjährigen Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Dysphagie (DGD) in Potsdam haben wir eine Episode mit Ulrich Birkmann auf Deutsch aufgenommen. Wir widmen uns einem komplexen, aber sehr spannenden Thema: Dysphagie bei Amyotropher Lateralsklerose (ALS). Uli erklärt in dieser Episode die Pathophysiologie der ALS, die Rolle des ersten und des zweiten Motoneurons und die Diagnostik von Dysphagien bei Menschen mit ALS. Und wer das tolle Projekt “Dysphagie 2 Go” von Uli und Yasemin noch nicht kennt, schaut gerne mal auf ihrer Homepage vorbei. Hier gibt es regelmäßig spannende, kompakte online Webinare.

Literatur und Webseiten, die in der Episode genannt werden:

Part 2 of “How to PhD” is all about the process of finding a good mentor for your PhD project. Our guest Dr. Nadine Connor has mentored many PhD students herself. In this episode, she shares her experiences by explaining different styles of mentoring, what mentors and mentees can or should expect from each other and how you can find out if someone could be a suitable mentor for you. This can also be transferred to bachelor or master projects, of course.

Here are some further helpful information:

This time, we have two great guests who share their very own experiences with doing a PhD: Dr Irene Battel has just recently finished her PhD at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and Beatrice Manduchi is right in the middle of her PhD at the University of Toronto, Canada.

They talk about the highs and lows and the importance of doing a PhD in the field of speech and language therapy and especially in dysphagia. They also share helpful information about the different systems in Europe and North America and give tips on how to find funding, a mentor and of course, motivation.

By the way, Irene and Beatrice have their own podcast! Go check out their podcast (it’s in Italian) “Disfagia in Evidenza”

Dr. Margaret Walshe joined us for this episode to discuss the first step in the process of dysphagia assessment: screening. She shares her expertise on who should be screened when and by whom and gives recommendations on how to decide for the best suitable screening tool. She explains why it is important to look beyond sensitivity and specificity when assessing the diagnostic accuracy of a test and what predictive values and likelihood ratios can tell us about the quality of a screening tool.

Research studies that Margaret talks about and further helpful information (note: simply click on the author’s name for open access, where available):

In episode four we speak to Prof. Shaun O’Keeffe. He and his colleagues have published the article “Aspiration, risk and risk feeding: A critique of the Royal College of Physicians guidance on care of people with eating and drinking difficulties” (O’Keeffe et al., 2021), which was awarded “Annual Best Paper Award 2021” by the ACS Journal. While talking about his paper, Shaun highlights why the language we use in clinical practice and research matters and what the relation between dysphagia, aspiration and pneumonia is. He also critically reflects on the traditional use of diet modification in the management of dysphagia.

Here are two more articles that Shaun talks about (note: for open access simply click on the author’s name):

In this episode we speak to Dr. Cynthia Fox, CEO and co-founder of LSVT Global and LSVT LOUD faculty. The Lee Silverman Voice Treatment (LSVT or LSVT LOUD) is an approach that was originally developed to treat voice and speech disorders in people with Parkinson’s disease. Over the years, changes in swallowing have been observed in patients with Parkinson’s post LSVT LOUD and pilot studies have investigated the effects of LSVT LOUD on swallowing in this patient population.

But does this mean that we can apply LSVT LOUD as a dysphagia treatment in patients with Parkinson’s? What about Atypical Parkinsonian Syndromes? We asked Cynthia all kinds of questions about LSVT LOUD, the relationship with swallowing and the current state of evidence.

Literature that we talk about in this episode and further helpful information:

LSVT Global Webinar: What we know about LSVT LOUD and swallowing impairments associated with Parkinson’s disease