On-demand individualised digital therapy for children, teenagers and adults who stammer: product development and research studies

口吃（或美国英语中的口吃）是一种神经发育障碍，与阅读障碍或自闭症一样，始于童年，并在12岁左右成为慢性疾病。它影响了8%的儿童和2%的青少年和成年人（BSA, 2022）。**未满足的主要需求是：***没有具有成本效益的持续/长期（慢性）支持：需要具有成本效益的支持来自我管理慢性口吃（Ward, 2018）。*没有公认的口吃治疗“最佳实践”或“黄金标准”（Baxter等人，2016年）。*治疗费用昂贵，缺乏口吃言语治疗提供和培训（Bercow， 2018年）。**产品愿景**一家英国的中小企业，建立了一个名为BeneTalk的数字治疗平台，通过建立一个口吃的语言治疗解决方案，可以解决上述所有未满足的需求，并解决社会不平等问题：每个人都可以访问（目前开发）：按需支持自我管理慢性口吃，无需专业支持干预。对每个人都有效（这个项目）：提供高度个性化的数字语言治疗。虽然没有针对口吃的标准治疗方案（即没有黄金标准），但科学界一致认为口吃治疗必须高度个性化（Baxter 2016, Manning & DiLollo, 2017）。因此，这个项目的动机是为PWS建立一个高度个性化的治疗解决方案，使BeneTalk成为第一个基于证据的口吃数字治疗（DTx）解决方案。**之前的InnovateUK资助（Ref: 72343）使孚瑞尔能够通过开发BeneTalk来降低风险并建立内部专业知识。顶级创新与现有技术解决方案是：1\。实时反馈：实时的视觉、音频或触觉反馈，以学习修改语言模式和行为。演讲跟踪：在任何演讲机会（诊所或/和练习环境之外）学习和练习。使用机器学习来改善治疗效果：利用从全球用户群收集的数据（本项目）。社区康复：社区言语练习与同伴支持。BeneTalk 2.0在英国和美国推出了高级功能，作为比现有解决方案便宜5到10倍的解决方案，它开始产生收入。**产出**该项目的主要目标是通过整合针对所有年龄段的个性化治疗，对BeneTalk进行进一步的技术改进，使其更具商业可行性。主要项目产出（在“有效期内”）：1。原型和测试个性化治疗解决方案。通过改善患者及其家人（特别是父母）的生活质量，在患者中验证新的解决方案。

**Need**Stammering (or stuttering in US English) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, like dyslexia or autism, that starts in childhood and becomes chronic around 12 years of age. It affects 8% of children and 2% of teenagers and adults (BSA, 2022).**The main unmet needs are:*** No cost-effective ongoing/long-term (chronic) support: need for cost-effective support to self-manage chronic stammering (Ward, 2018).* No recognized "best practices" or "gold standard" exists for stammering treatment (Baxter et al., 2016),* Expensive therapy and lack of stammering speech therapy provision and training (Bercow, 2018).**Product Vision**Respira, a UK-based SME, has built a digital therapeutic platform called BeneTalk that can tackle all the above-mentioned unmet needs and address societal inequalities, by building a speech therapy solution for stammering that is:1. Accessible to everyone (current development): on-demand support to self-manage chronic stammering without professional support intervention.2. Effective for everyone (this project): delivering a highly personalised digital speech therapy.**Project opportunity**Although there are no standard care options for stammering (i.e., no gold standard), the scientific community agrees that stammering treatment has to be highly individualised (Baxter 2016, Manning & DiLollo, 2017). It is therefore the motivation of this project to build a highly individualised therapy solution for PWS, enabling BeneTalk to be the first evidence-based Digital Therapeutics (DTx) solution for stammering.**Disruptive approach**A previous InnovateUK grant (Ref: 72343) enabled Respira to de-risk and build in-house expertise by developing BeneTalk. Top innovations vs existing technological solutions are:1\. Real-time Feedback: Visual, audio or haptic feedback in real-time to learn to modify speech patterns and behaviours.2\. Speech Tracking: Learning and practice at any speaking opportunity (outside the clinic or/and practice environment).3\. Use of machine learning to improve therapy outcomes: leveraging gathered data from a global user base (this project).4\. Community-Based Rehabilitation: Community speech practice & peer support.BeneTalk 2.0 was launched with premium features in the UK and U.S., and started generating revue with as a solution 5 to 10x cheaper and more effective than existing solutions.**Outputs**The primary objective of this project is to make further technical improvements into BeneTalk to make it more commercially viable, by integrating individualised therapy for all ages. The main project outputs are (within the "availability period"):1. Prototyping and testing individualised therapeutics solutions.2. Validating the new solution with patients, by improving the quality of life of the users and their families (particularly parents).