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True Angle partners with Stanford’s Head & Neck Cancer Speech & Swallowing Rehabilitation Centre to revolutionize patient care 🩺⚕️👩⚕️
Dysphagia is a swallowing disorder involving the oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus, or gastroesophageal junction. It occurs in over 50% of people with head and neck cancer, and in over 30% in people after a stroke. It is also common in people with Alzheimer’s and occurs in over 90% of the people diagnosed with Parkinson’s. In adults over the age of 50, dysphagia occurrence is estimated at 20%, and in nursing facilities the prevalence rises to over 60%.
Consequences of dysphagia include malnutrition and dehydration, aspiration pneumonia, compromised general health, chronic lung disease, choking, and even death. Dysphagia intervention includes swallowing exercises, and maintaining of this exercise program is essential to patients regaining a quality of life. Mobili-T is a small, portable system that utilizes an under-the-chin sensor and connected mobile application for patients and clinicians to visualize swallowing exercises. Clinicians can use the Mobili-T in clinic, and send home with patients for continuity of care. Access to biofeedback technologies at home, and improved adherence leads to improved patient outcomes.
Dr. Heather Starmer is an accomplished Speech-Language Pathologist (S-LP), and as Director of Stanford’s Head and Neck Cancer Speech and Swallowing Rehabilitation Center, her practice focuses on improving the swallow and helping people regain quality of life that most of us take for granted. On Mobili-T, Dr. Starmer says, “It gives us the data points to have realistic conversations about expectations with patients … It helps the patients do better quicker …"
“One of the areas that I've been interested in for more than a decade now is the patient adherence piece. We see the same issues in head neck cancer that we see throughout tour field, but potentially in some cases, to an extreme extent because many of our patients are going through really toxic treatments or having a lot of side effects. Trying to get them engaged with exercises can be particularly challenging just because of everything else that's going on,” says Heather.
“Having Mobili-T in their toolkit gives medical staff more flexibility in treatment options creating time and cost savings. Because they are able to send patients home with this technology, therapy can continue without needing as many inconvenient and costly clinic visits. It has also provided a useful tool for integrating more effective telehealth options since the Mobili-T system allows for remote monitoring and hence provides information on what is happening between visits. Mobili-T has provided insight into what patients are doing at home, making it easier to adjust their treatment program and achieve better results” says Dr. Jana Rieger, co-founder of True Angle.
About Stanford’s Head & Neck Cancer Speech & Swallowing Rehabilitation Centre
Part of Stanford’s Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery, the Head and Neck Speech and Swallowing Rehabilitation Centre provides patients with state-of-the-art care following a head and neck cancer diagnosis.
About True Angle
True Angle is disrupting the world of dysphagia exercise by providing access to technology that empowers, delivering objective data that informs and drives care, and building a supportive network of users, with a
vision to create person-centered biofeedback technologies that lead to meaningful health insights and connections.
About Scale Up Canada
Scale Up Canada is a not-for-profit public-private partnership dedicated to connecting Canadian innovators with industry experts and strategic investors. Our mission is to drive the global commercialization of Canadian-made innovations, ensure investor readiness for high-potential startups, and build capacity for community organizations working with Canadian founders.