MODAM
A wearable non-invasive system to measure, monitor and train on the swallowing function using impedance, EMG, vibration and acoustic sensors
Swallowing is a complex sequence of finely coordinated events requiring both sensory and motor functions with voluntary movements and involuntary reflexes.
Dysphagia is a disorder of the swallowing system causing difficulty or inability to form a bolus or to move the bolus safely from the mouth to the stomach. It is a serious medical disorder of the swallowing system responsible for moving food and liquid from the mouth to the stomach. Patients with dysphagia may suffer from malnutrition, dehydration and severe life-threatening lung infections due to aspirations.
It is usually caused by nerve or muscle problems and the victims of this disorder suffer pain, choking, recurrent pneumonia, gagging and more.
Treatment focuses on interventions through exercise and facilitation – all of which are performed in hospitals and clinics. there is a lack in a reliable objective non-invasive assessment tool that can be easily repeated in order to examine progress and treatment response.
Inventors
Dr. Hagit Shoffel-Havakok, Rabin Medical Center
Contact info
Avital Pritz, Director of Medical Devices and Digital Health
For further information please contact:
avital@mor-research.comThe MODAM is a wearable non-invasive system for measuring swallowing in real time using: impedance, EMG and vibration and acoustic sensors.
The system is affordable and the electrodes are placed within a single adhesive disposable band which is placed around the neck.
The MODAM can serve as an objective measuring tool for diagnosis and as a biofeedback tool for training.
The MODAM will measure the performance of the training tasks by the patients. These measurements will be the input to a biofeedback system that will improve the patients' performance of the tasks.
In the United States, dysphagia accounts for 60,000 deaths annually.
Conservative estimates suggest that dysphagia may be as high as 22% in adults over 50 years of age, and particularly impacts on the elderly.
The global Dysphagia Management market was valued at 1112.4 Million USD in 2021 and will grow with a CAGR of 3.3% from 2021 to 2027
Increase in the prevalence of dysphagia is due to an aging population, rise in obesity, Rising incidence rates of neurologic disease, cancer chemotherapy treatment, and long-term use of opioid medication and the growth in geriatric healthcare expenditure by countries like China & India.
The MODAM prototype is under development for a “proof of concept” clinical trial that will demonstrate product feasibility of swallowing sequence assessment in healthy and dysphagia patients