From WisPolitics.com/WisBusiness.com …
— A Marquette University researcher is part of a team getting $3.8 million in federal funding to develop an assessment framework for certain speech disorders in children.
Jenya Iuzzini-Seigel, an associate professor of speech pathology and audiology in Milwaukee, is working with Kristen Allison of Northeastern University on the project.
The research grant from the National Institutes of Health builds on their prior work to create the Profile for Childhood Apraxia of speech and Dysarthria, or ProCAD. The new funding will help to further develop this tool to improve diagnosis of these motor speech disorders.
For kids with childhood apraxia of speech, the rare disorder makes it difficult for them to control their lips, jaw and tongue while speaking, disrupting typical speech development. And dysarthria occurs when the muscles involved in speech are weak or hard to control, often caused by other conditions that affect the nervous system or paralyze the face.
While early data show the ProCAD tool can distinguish between these two disorders, ongoing research will help create a “clinically feasible” way to diagnose them earlier and more accurately, according to the announcement.
Iuzzini-Seigel notes the disorders are “highly debilitating” for millions of people.
“We hope to take important steps towards development of a much-needed assessment protocol to identify features that best differentiate children with childhood apraxia of speech from dysarthria and from the features children demonstrate during typical development,” she said in a statement on the project.
Funding for the research comes from the NIH’s National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
See the release below.
— Project partners have begun building a new rehabilitation hospital in Fitchburg, with construction slated to wrap up in early 2027.
UW Health, UnityPoint Health – Meriter and Lifepoint Rehabilitation recently announced the start of the project. The 58,000-square-foot facility will include 40 private rooms, offering physical, occupational and speech pathology services for adults recovering from various injuries and illnesses, such as a stroke.
The care providers involved in the new hospital already have a 50-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Madison, which has been operating since late 2015.
Michele McClure, chief nursing officer at UW Health University Hospital, says the Fitchburg location was selected to be convenient for patients in the area and surrounding counties.
“Fitchburg is a fast-growing community that has a strong need for medical services,” she said in the announcement.
See the release below.
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