1.
Down the Hatch &
Tongue Twister
October 30, 2019

2.
Clinical Need
Problem: Subjectivity
• Diagnostic tests
• Treatment outcomes
• No “common currency”
SPEECH & SWALLOWING DISORDERS
Need: Objectivity
• Earlier disease detection
• Improved diagnostic accuracy
• Improved treatment monitoring
• Discovery of better treatments
EKG Body Mass IndexLab Tests

3.
How does product/service solve problem?
• Two Products
1. Down the Hatch: Medical device and software solution
2. Tongue Twister: Mobile Health Application (mHealth app)

4.
What is the problem?
Swallowing Impairment = Dysphagia
Problem: Aspiration Pneumonia
•Extended hospitalization
•Re-hospitalization & associated Medicare fines
•Poor quality of life
•Leading cause of death (grossly under-estimated
at 60 K Americans/year)
Larynx

5.
Solution: Down the Hatch
Featured at the MU Innovation Dinner (October 12, 2017)
Clinical tool to test the laryngeal reflex: Provides objective data
to facilitate prediction and prevention of aspiration pneumonia

6.
What is the market use?
Who is it for? Clinicians who evaluate/treat dysphagia using
endoscopy: Physicians (ENTs, GI, Pulmonology), Speech-language
Pathologists (SLPs), and Veterinarians (>150,000 in the US)
Why will they buy it?
• Transforms endoscopic videos into objective and actionable data
• Provides data visualization (numbers and graphs) during patient visits
• Provides measurable outcomes to justify health insurance reimbursement
• May reduce 30-day hospital re-admission rates and hefty Medicare fines
associated with aspiration pneumonia diagnosis
• Enables improved detection & tracking of laryngeal (upper airway)
pathology and aspiration pneumonia risk
• Results in more confident medical decision making -- eliminates clinicians’
reliance on subjective dysphagia rating scales and questionnaires

7.
What competition exists?
• Obsolete pre-existing devices:
– No longer commercially available; no replacement parts
– Air pulse delivery only, no analysis software
– Low air pressure capability = underpowered; often fail to elicit the
laryngeal reflex
– Limited field of view = unable to see the entire reflex for objective
motion analysis
Competition Our Technology

8.
What is the status of the intellectual property?
• Patent pending
• Not licensed to start-up yet

9.
What is the stage of development?
• 3 working prototypes - currently being used in normative studies
• Analysis software
automatically calculates
– Reflex duration
– Vocal fold motion
• Symmetry
• Synchrony
• Distance
• Velocity
HorsesPeople
75 healthy
adults
15 healthy
adults
Reflex duration

10.
What is needed for further development?
• Identify a start-up business partner who will:
– Assist with product refinement & commercialization
– Provide business, marketing, & finance advice
• Apply for SBIR/STTR grant funding
– Clinical validation
– Device and software refinement
People with dysphagia
Parkinson’s Disease
Head & Neck Cancer
Horses at high risk for airway
collapse due to laryngeal disease
Thoroughbreds
Draft horses
Single clinician operator
Identify additional outcome
measures and complete validation

11.
QUESTIONS?

12.
Switching Gears
Down the Hatch Tongue Twister
Swallowing Speech & Swallowing

13.
What is the problem?
Speech & Swallowing Impairment
Problem: Clinical assessment and treatment intervention
protocols are qualitative and subjective

14.
Solution: Tongue Twister
Mobile Health App that provides objective data for speech & swallow
tasks that are routinely used in clinical practice world-wide
Can be used as the basis for a number of diagnostic tools
related to speech and swallowing dysfunction.
Merged audio/video

15.
What is the market use?
Who is it for? Clinicians who diagnose
and treat speech and swallowing
disorders (e.g., neurologists, ENTs, SLPs), and
patients with speech and swallowing
disorders
Why will they buy it?

16.
What competition exists?
Speech &
Swallowing
Assessment
Event
Detection
Accuracy
Event
Recognition
Accuracy
Clinician-
interactive
Mode
Automated
data
analysis
Graphic
Output of
Data
PENTAX Medical
(software, 2008)
PRAAT
(software, 1991)
SPEECHLIGHT
(app, 2017)
SwallowTail
(software, 2017)
Our Technology
Separate tools
Combined
Speech only
Swallow only
Speech only
>90% >80%

17.
What is the status of the intellectual property?
• Patent-pending
• Not licensed to start-up yet

18.
What is the stage of development?
• Mobile health app on iPad for audio/visual recording of
speech/swallow tasks
• Separate analytics software
• App and software are currently in use:
– Normative study (>200 healthy adults, 20-90 years old)
– Parkinson’s disease (29 patients tested thus far)

19.
What is needed for further development?
• Identify a start-up business partner who will:
– Assist with product refinement & commercialization
– Provide business, marketing, & finance advice
• Apply for SBIR/STTR funding
– Clinical validation: Parkinson’s disease
– Device and software development/refinement
Merge app &
analytics software
Improve recognition
accuracy
Develop cloud
analytics

20.
QUESTIONS?