George Patrick discusses the SpeechVive device with Jessica Huber, associate professor in Purdue's Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, and developer of the device. The device helps people with Parkinson’s disease communicate more effectively. Patrick has been using the device since 2011, and it is now available on the market through health care providers and for demonstration at many of the National Parkinson's Centers of Excellence across the United States Credit: Purdue Research Foundation
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The device
is now available to try as a demo through the National Parkinson's Disease
Foundation's Centers of Excellence prior to purchasing. People who suffer from
a soft voice due to Parkinson's disease can make an appointment at any of these
centers: the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Center at Barrow Neurological Institute in
Phoenix; the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida; University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Struthers Parkinson's Center,
Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Baylor College of Medicine, Waco, Texas.
"We are providing demo
units and training at no cost to as many of the National Parkinson's Centers of
Excellence as are interested in offering SpeechVive in conjunction with or as
an alternative to speech therapy," said Steve Mogensen,
president and CEO of SpeechVive. "We also are offering the SpeechVive
units and training to professionals at Veterans Administration Medical Centers
across the country. The first VAMC to offer SpeechVive is in Cincinnati,
Ohio."
The SpeechVive device also is
available to try at the M.D. Steer Speech and Hearing Clinic at Purdue
University in West Lafayette, Indiana.
The technology was developed
over the past decade by Jessica Huber, associate professor in Purdue's
Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences and licensed through the
Purdue Office of Technology Commercialization. The focus of Huber's research is
the development and testing of behavioral treatments to improve communication
and quality of life in older adults and people with degenerative motor
diseases.
SpeechVive reduces the speech
impairments associated with Parkinson's disease, which cause people with the
disease to speak in a hushed, whispery voice and to have mumbled speech. People
with Parkinson's disease are commonly affected in their ability to communicate
effectively.
"The clinical data we
have collected over the past four years demonstrates that SpeechVive is
effective in 90 percent of the people using the device," Huber said.
"I am proud of the improvements in communication and quality of life
demonstrated in our clinical studies. I look forward to seeing the device on
the market so that more people with Parkinson's disease will have access to
it."
More than 1.5 million people
in the United States are diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and it is one of
the most common degenerative neurological diseases. About 89 percent of those
with the disease have voice-related change affecting how loudly they speak, and
at least 45 percent have speech-related change affecting how clearly they
speak.
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