Children with voice disorders are at a social and educational disadvantage and require behavioral therapy requiring specialized clinical skills. Because such therapy is often difficult for families to access, a project supported by AHRQ www.ahrq.gov is testing a telehealth model to extend the telehealth concept to treating pediatric voice disorders.
The research project titled “Access to Pediatric Voice Therapy: a Telehealth Solution”(R21HSO21781) at wwwcf.nlm.nih.gov/hsr_project/home_proj.cfm is being conducted at the University of Cincinnati’s, College of Allied Health Sciences within the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders with Lisa Nelson Kelchner lisa.kelchner@uc.edu as principal investigator.
The purpose for the study is to determine the feasibility of using a telehealth solution for delivering pediatric voice therapy via secure teleconferencing and web-based systems. The researchers are also going to gather preliminary efficacy data and carefully evaluate the use of telehealth by patients, families, and pediatric voice care specialists.
The hypothesis is that an informed feasible, and personalized approach to pediatric voice care via telehealth is possible and will result in improved patient access to quality care and provide a greater opportunity for self-management and clinical monitoring.
The first task was to build and design an interactive web site for ten children ages 8 to 15 to enable children to do exercises to support their voice therapy. Outcome measures will include satisfaction, compliance, and cost. The intent is to provide proof of systems’ capability relative to the needed technical equipment, reliability of internet operations, and web-portal access for this type of patient care.
In the long term, the aim is to prove that this model of service delivery can be standardized and used to consistently deliver a high level of care, evaluate treatment outcomes, and reduce the chronic nature of childhood voice disorders. Perhaps in time, applications to other childhood communication disorders will take place.