Down the Hatch - The Swallowing Podcast

Down the Hatch (Swallowing Podcast) lucky number 13! Dr. Catriona Steele, a prolific scientist and swallowing expert, launches the first episode in our series called EXPERT RANT on the following 3 topics: 1. Revisiting the Clinical Swallowing Evaluation from Down the Hatch 12: Screen versus Evaluation? 2. Do Penetration-Aspiration Scale scores of 4 and 6 actually exist? 3. Get more aggressive with your rehab! Solutions: Clinicians and Researchers …. JOIN FORCES! Enjoy (-:

The Clinical Swallowing Evaluation (CSE) is a critical part of dysphagia management. However, it is often misused and over interpreted. In this high-energy installment of Down the Hatch (The Swallowing Podcast) SLPs Rinki Varindani Desai and Beth Shah, along with Hosts Ianessa Humbert and Alicia Vose, discuss whether the CSE should really be considered a screening and if swallowing is actually being evaluated at all.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how much SLP solidarity exists at your work place? Take a listen to the newest Down the Hatch swallowing podcast where Alicia Vose and I explore the challenges and benefits of SLP Solidarity with our friends and fellow Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) Dan Weinstein and Ed M Bice.

In this 10th installment of Down the Hatch, the podcast about swallowing, hosts Ianessa Humbert and Alicia Vose talk with guest Andre Gaboriau, M.A., CFY-SLP and returning guest Rinki Varindani Desai, M.S., CCC-SLP about the state of dysphagia education and training at the university/college level, clinical externships, and at the CFY level.

It happens every time. A particular question is posed by one member of an audience of speech language pathologists who treat dysphagia. The question is cautious with a hint of frustration: How do I deal with inadequate modified barium swallow study reports from other speech language pathologists? In this Down the Hatch #9 (Swallowing Podcast), Alicia Vose and I discuss dysphagia documentation dilemmas for the evaluating clinicians who conduct modified barium swallow studies and write reports and for the treating clinicians who rely on the reports from evaluating clinicians to guide the treatment plan for patients in their care. SLP clinician experts Michele Singer and Nicole Roth weigh in to add immediate clinical relevance to this critical, and somewhat controversial, clinical topic.

Expiratory muscle strength training (EMST) is a device driven-therapy based in exercise physiology principles and used in dysphagia management. Although it is a non-swallowing treatment, it is known to have important utility in increasing the effectiveness of cough. Hosts Ianessa Humbert and Alicia Vose discuss the ins and outs of EMST with SLP and doctoral student Lauren Tabor.

So, what's the deal with e-stim? A question that is often asked. In this episode of Down the Hatch (the podcast about swallowing), doctoral student and SLP Alicia Vose and Assoc. Prof and mentor Ianessa Humbert re-unite after a brief hiatus to take up a controversial topic in dysphagia management - electrical stimulation. I think this topic is in keeping with the climate of 2017 in the United States of America, don't you?

The researcher-clinician divide in dysphagia management is real. In this installment of DOWN THE HATCH (the swallowing podcast), clinician SLP Rinki Varindani Desai M.A., CCC-SLP and researcher Ianessa Humbert, Ph.D.,CCC-SLP (host of Down the Hatch) candidly discuss the problems and possible causes of the researcher-clinician divide among professionals involved in dysphagia management. As a solution to this divide, and in response to overwhelming clinician demand for a relatable and clinically relevant way to learn to read the research literature, Rinki and I introduce DYSPHAGIA GRAND ROUNDS (DGR)at the end of the podcast. DGR is an online journal club that focuses on swallowing and swallowing disorders. In DGR, Dr. Humbert will conduct monthly webinars discussing ways to critically appraise a research study on a specific topic related to dysphagia. Join the Dysphagia Grand Rounds mailing list at dysphagiagrandrounds.com

Parkinson's Disease (PD) can lead to swallowing disorders (dysphagia). Swallowing disorders in PD can be serious because it can lead to aspiration pneumonia, which is one of the most common causes of death in PD. In response to a special request by the National Parkinson Foundation (www.parkinson.org), this installment of Down the Hatch (The Swallowing Podcast) focuses on swallowing impairments in PD. Special guest experts Karen Wheeler-Hegland, Ph.D., CCC-SLP and Emily Plowman, Ph.D., CCC-SLP discuss issues related to swallowing disorders in PD for patients, care-givers, speech-language pathologists, physicians, and the general public.

Physicians play a critical role in dysphagia management, even though swallowing may not have been included in their medical training. This installment of Down the Hatch features a conversation with Dr. Michael Okun, Department Chair of Neurology and Co-Director of the Movement Disorders Center of the University of Florida. We discuss the lack of training across medical disciplines in dysphagia as well as suggestions for how swallowing clinicians and researchers can advocate for improvements in dysphagia management. Get up! Stand up!

Swallowing clinicians made it clear that they want more CEUs on normal swallowing at the March 2016 Critical Thinking in Dysphagia Management meeting. In this podcast, Alicia and Ianessa bust a few myths regarding normal characteristics of swallowing and unnecessary dysphagia diagnoses. They also discuss how a clear understanding of normal swallowing can improve dysphagia management.

Not all swallowing clinicians have access to instrumental examinations, such as videofluoroscopy or fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing, but almost all swallowing clinicians can do clinical examinations. In this episode of Down the Hatch, Ianessa and Alicia weigh in on the merits of leaning too heavily on either clinical examinations or instrumental examinations to diagnose swallowing impairments.