Fort Worth firm gets peer-review affirmation

Peer review finds TechFW Client Ampcare provides “clinically meaningful outcome improvements”

TechFW client and Fort Worth-based Ampcare’s Effective Swallowing Protocol has passed a non-partisan peer-review. Ampcare’s ESP combines electrical stimulation with resistance exercises to rehabilitate effective and safe swallow function, a news release stated.

The review was completed by the independent Speech and Language Therapy team in Sheffield (United Kingdom) Teaching Hospitals. Sheffield secured funding to complete a pilot study of 30 stroke patients comparing ESP against usual dysphagia treatment.

“There is a growing movement to identify dysphagia interventions that can restore swallow function rather than simply manage symptoms,” Lise Sproson, author of this research and a Speech and Language Pathologist, wrote in the report.

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The study found that 75 percent of patients receiving Ampcare’s ESP improved their swallowing function, compared with 57 percent of the usual-care group.

Additionally, the peer-review found that ESP candidates made “clinically meaningful” change in oral intake and diet compared to usual-care candidates.

Finally, one month after the end of the study, 100 percent of the ESP patients reported improved swallow-related quality of life, compared with 42 percent of the usual-care patients.

“This study presents promising data of measurable clinical swallow rehabilitation and justifies progression toward a full-scale trial,” Spronson wrote in the report. “It also showed there were no adverse treatment effects and all patients found the treatment to be tolerable.”

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Following the pilot trial, Ampcare’s ESP has been launched in the U.K. and speech and language therapists have been trained at 10 NHS Trusts, of which the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals is a unit.

To read the full peer report, please visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1460-6984.12359/full

More on Ampcare:

www.fortworthbusiness.com/news/merging-disciplines-ampcare-hopes-device-will-improve-treatment-and-lives/article_74b4c4f5-f914-515f-941b-b5e685ec7a3e.html