• 7/1/2006
  • Wheeling, WVa
  • staff
  • Wheeling News-Register (www.theintelligencer.net)

The West Virginia High Technology Consortium Foundation is assisting a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs researcher in securing a company to commercialize software that can help diagnose a medical condition affecting millions of Americans.

With one in four U.S. residents now considered obese, the medical community and others are spending countless hours and millions of dollars to get the country back in shape. New drugs, diets and exercise regimens are hitting the market faster than consumers can snap them up.

Everyone, it seems, is looking for the perfect prescription to prevent over-eating. But what if you couldn’t eat?

For the 15 million Americans with swallowing disorders — a number growing by 1 million more annually — this is a nightmare come true. And it is a problem that doesn’t receive enough attention, according to Roxann Diez Gross, a research speech-language pathologist for the VA Pittsburgh Health Care System.

“Our lives are centered around food,” Gross said. “It’s not just life-sustaining; it’s how we meet, how we celebrate, how we get to know each other. Try to think of any special event that doesn’t involve food. Now try to imagine being told you may never be able to eat or drink again.”

Swallowing disorders, or oropharyngeal dysphagia — which can result from a stroke, Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, brain injury, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, head and neck cancer, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and even more diseases — constitute “a neglected medical problem,” said Gross, who also is director of the Swallowing Disorders Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Eye and Ear Institute.

“I’ve been working on this problem for almost 20 years, and I honestly don’t believe I know what it’s like emotionally for these people and their families. Food is often equated with love; mothers want to feed their children. People believe that eating will make you healthy. But in this case, eating can actually make you sick,” Gross said.

Even though impaired swallowing can lead to malnutrition, dehydration, starvation, airway obstruction and aspiration pneumonia, “the disorder is often invisible,” she said. “It doesn’t get much attention because it’s not usually an obvious problem. Everyone is at risk, but people want to fix what they can see.”

Gross has been working to shed light on the problem and to research methods for improving diagnosis and treatment of swallowing difficulties. A lot of her research has been performed for the VA Pittsburgh Health Care System, and Gross said she is indebted to the funding from the VA — and other sources — that has helped her continue her research.

“I’m glad I did this research at the VA,” Gross said. “Its policies for inventors are very generous and the support has been great.”

Currently, with the help of the WVHTC Foundation, the VA is seeking a commercial partnership to help Gross complete the research and development of a novel software program that she has developed. The program compares digital videofluorographic (X-ray) images of the head and neck before and after a swallow to determine the quantity of food not swallowed.

This method of quantifying pharyngeal residue and aspiration will enable researchers to develop diagnostic standards that could be used in treating dysphagia patients. In addition, clinicians will be able to make before and after treatment comparisons to assess treatment efficacy and determine outcomes.

Joseph Allen, WVHTC Foundation vice president and general manager, said linking federal labs to companies that can turn the labs’ research into useful products is just one of the many services the foundation provides. He said the foundation contracts with the VA to help commercialize the agency’s technologies.

“The foundation’s Intellectual Property Management Group not only helps link federal labs to companies that can advance new technologies to the marketplace, we also assist in each step of the process — technology assessment, patent procedures, market evaluation, agreement negotiations and everything else necessary to bring a technology to life. It’s great to see a theory become a useful product or service that can change or save someone’s life,” noted Allen.

The only other method for quantifying pharyngeal residue and aspiration — scintigraphy — requires swallowing radioactive material, and does not provide an image of anatomical features, as do X-ray images, which are necessary to determine the exact location of the residue.

“One of the ways these patients truly suffer is that so many people don’t understand or believe that swallowing impairment can occur,” Gross said. “I want to use this invention to increase public awareness of swallowing disorders.”

Gross is optimistic that, with the WVHTC Foundation’s help, she and the VA will find a company that will partner with the VA to eventually bring the computer program to market. “Swallowing disorder is an important issue — a major issue,” she said, “and hopefully we can interest a company that will understand how this invention can ultimately improve the quality of life for so many people by improving the science that can help them through proper diagnosis and treatment.”