UNM Dysphagia Corpus

Phyllis Palmer Speech and Hearing Sciences University of New Mexico ppalmer@unm.edu

Browsable transcripts

Downloadable transcripts

Media folder

Citation information

Palmer, P.M., Padilla, A.H., MacWhinney, B. (2023). The development and implementation of a data repository for swallow studies. Dysphagia. Advance online publication. doi:10.1007/s00455-023-10632-8.

In accordance with TalkBank rules, any use of data from this corpus must be accompanied by at least one of the above references.

General Overview

The Swallow Disorders Research Lab at UNM (Palmer, PI) seeks to support student and clinician learning by reducing barriers to research in the area of swallowing and its disorders. The development of this database was initiated to engage students in research by reducing the time and complexity required to complete research that employs videofluorographic evaluations of swallowing (VFES) data. A database of VFES reduces the time required to obtain IRB approval when ionizing radiation is employed in a study. It also provides research options where individuals do not have easy access to videofluoroscopy or are unable to financially complete VFES for research. In addition to supporting student research, this database hopes to provide academic faculty with teaching support and young clinicians with an opportunity to practice reviewing and interpreting VFES.

The studies contained in this database were gathered retrospectively and transcribed under the direction of Phyllis M. Palmer and Aaron H. Padilla. All VFES were obtained as part of standard clinical care. In general, for VFES performed on adults, the MBSImP protocol was employed. In some cases, to assess specific concerns, other bolus variables or compensatory strategies are employed in the VFES. See, for example, study 031 where the patient reported difficulty while eating burritos. In this case a burrito was coated in barium. No specific protocol is used in infant studies.

Our goal is to continue to grow this database and we hope that other clinicians will join the effort and add to this database with their VFES. We invite other clinicians to also consider adding other instrumental swallow data such as fiberoptic studies (FEES) or high-resolution manometry.

Participants