Development and Validation of Mechanically Compliant Wearable Monitoring Systems for Swallowing Function and Disorders

农村地区经常出现医疗专业人员和技术短缺的情况。这样的短缺 显著影响患者的健康和预后，证明对远程康复技术的投资是合理的 远程交付这些服务。现代技术使得能够使用便携式监控系统， 方便临床医生远程收集生物反馈信号用于康复实践，并使患者能够 使用实时生物反馈。然而，现有的设备受到刚性或半柔性平台的影响，而这些平台不是 适合于与人体柔软的、曲线的和动态的部分(例如，潜意识 (在下巴下)和口内区域)。这通常会导致数据采集不佳，从而导致不适 影响患者的依从性。此外，治疗依从性差被认为是阻碍 康复，主要归因于昂贵、难以使用或可获得的设备/装置有限， 以及无法获得身体上的治疗。这个团队的长期目标是提供一套完整的 先进的可穿戴设备，可轻松、准确地满足日常远程康复需求。 该项目的目标是开发并开始验证一系列廉价的软、薄监控 完全适合人体的系统，然后以无线方式提供准确的实时数据 病人和临床医生。人体的两个曲线状和结构复杂的区域，精神下层和 口腔内区域，将成为这些新型可穿戴换能器开发的目标。测量自 这些区域在吞咽的康复过程中是必不可少的，吞咽是一种重要的身体功能，被用作 这项提议。吞咽障碍(吞咽困难)在许多疾病中都很常见(例如，头颈部癌症， 笔划等)并显著影响健康、生活质量和社会融合。要准确监控 吞咽信号，将传感器亲密地连接到具有解剖挑战性的头/颈部皮肤和内部- 口腔环境是必不可少的。为达致上述目标，现提出以下具体目标：1) 开发并执行针对颧下肌肉量身定做的无线软而薄传感器贴片的台式测试 监测，2)开发和执行为口腔内量身定做的无线腭板传感器的桌面测试 压力/运动监测，以及3)在健康成年人中进行迭代的临床前实验，以验证 传感器在吞咽任务和练习过程中的安全性、易用性/舒适性和信号质量。这个 拟议的研究是创新的，因为它将开发新的、可穿戴的远程监控系统，这些系统是为 在解剖学上有两个极具挑战性的领域。这一贡献将是重大的，因为它将提供首个此类贡献， 机械合规、价格低廉、可靠的可穿戴系统，用于吞咽信号监测。这 然后，将为制定吞咽困难远程康复方案和完成后续工作奠定基础 临床试验。项目完成后，将建立一个可扩展的基础平台 到一系列障碍，包括言语和口腔感觉运动障碍。

Rural areas often experience shortages of medical professionals and technologies. Such shortages significantly affect patient health and outcomes, justifying investments in tele-rehabilitation technology to deliver these services remotely. Modern technologies enable the use of portable monitoring systems, facilitating clinicians to remotely collect biofeedback signals for rehabilitation practices and enabling patients to use real-time biofeedback. However, existing devices suffer from rigid or semi-flexible platforms, which are not suited for interfacing with the soft, curvilinear, and dynamic parts of the human body (e.g., the submental (under the chin) and intraoral areas). This often results in poor data acquisition and in discomfort, thereby affecting patient compliance. Moreover, poor treatment compliance is identified as a critical barrier to rehabilitation, and is primarily attributed to expensive, difficult-to-use or limited availability of equipment/devices, and inability to physically access treatment. This team's long-term goal is to provide a complete set of advanced wearable devices that can be easily and accurately utilized for day-to-day tele-rehabilitation needs. The objective of this project is to develop and start validating a collection of inexpensive soft, thin monitoring systems that can perfectly fit into/on the human body, and then wirelessly provide accurate real-time data to patients and clinicians. Two curvilinear and structurally complex areas of the human body, the submental and intraoral areas, will be targeted for the development of these novel, wearable transducers. Measurements from these areas are essential during rehabilitation of swallowing, a vital body function that is used as the model for this proposal. Swallowing disorders (dysphagia) are common in many diseases (e.g., head and neck cancer, stroke, etc.) and significantly affect health, quality of life, and social integration. To accurately monitor swallowing signals, intimate attachment of sensors to the anatomically challenging head/neck skin and intra- oral environment is essential. To attain the stated objective, the following specific aims are proposed: 1) to develop and conduct benchtop testing of a wireless soft, thin sensor patch tailored for submental muscle monitoring, 2) to develop and conduct benchtop testing of a wireless palatal plate sensor tailored for intraoral pressure/movement monitoring, and 3) to conduct iterative pre-clinical experiments in healthy adults to validate the safety, ease-of-use/comfort, and signal quality of the sensors during swallowing tasks and exercises. The proposed research is innovative, as it will develop novel, wearable tele-monitoring systems that are tailored for two challenging areas anatomically. This contribution will be significant because it will offer a first-of-its-kind, mechanically compliant, inexpensive, and reliable wearable system for swallowing signals monitoring. This work will then form the basis for developing dysphagia tele-rehabilitation protocols and completing a follow-up clinical trial. Upon project completion, a foundational platform will have been established that can be extended to a range of disorders, including speech and oral sensorimotor disorders.