Recent PhD graduate, Victoria Sherman, has just published a paper in the Journal of the American Heart Association, investigating the benefit of dysphagia screening in the adult stroke population. Click here to read the article.

The Swallowing Lab was involved in providing simulated learning opportunities for Speech Language Pathology students at the University of Toronto during COVID. Click here for the full story.

Sherman, V, Martino, R. , Bhathal, I, Deverber, G, Dlanini, N, MacGregor, D, Pulcine, L, Beal, D, Thorpe, K, Moharir, M. Swallowing, oral motor, motor speech and language impairments following acute pediatric ischemic stroke. Stroke. 2021; 52: 1309–1318. Click here for article.

Greco, E, Ringash, K, Tomlinson, G, Huang, SH, O’Sullivan, B, Waldron, J, Martino, R. Presence and duration of feeding tube in a 5-year cohort of patients with head and neck cancer treated with curative intensity-modulated radiation therapy. Head and Neck 2021; 1-11. Click here to access article.

Swallowing Lab PhD students, Victoria Sherman and Beatrice Manduchi, were recently recognized with academic excellence awards by the University of Toronto.

Victoria was awarded the SickKids Clinician Scientist Program Training Award.

Beatrice was awarded the Mary H. Beatty Fellowship.

Congratulations to both!!!

Members of the Swallowing Lab share some useful insights into the unique challenges presented by COVID-19, specifically the shift from in-person to virtual care for their dysphagic patients.

The Dangers of Swallowing Disorders, which was recently featured in the Globe and Mail, showcases Dr. Rosemary’s Martino’s multi-site PRO-ACTIVE study. This study aims to determine what type of intervention – early or reactive – is most effective at treating swallowing problems among head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy.

Dr. Martino was one of 21 recipients of new and renewed Canada Research Chairs at the University of Toronto this year. Total estimated funding for the chairs is $19 million. Dr. Martino’s Canada Research Chair (Tier 2) in Swallowing Disorders was first awarded in 2013 and helps to fund her research program, which focuses on understanding swallowing impairment (dysphagia) and its impact on the patient. Her aim is to conduct research that will assist clinicians in providing the best possible care to their patients and that will ultimately help reduce the burden of dysphagia for patients, their caregivers and the community.

For full details about this year’s Canada Research Chair recipients from the University of Toronto, please click here.

Victoria Sherman, a third year doctoral student, recently published the first systematic review on dysphagia following stroke in children. This review highlighted that, although limited data is available, dysphagia commonly occurs after childhood stroke, with reported frequencies from 24.2% to 88.6%. There is very little known on dysphagia-related health outcomes and caregiver burden, and no standardized tool available to identify dysphagia early following stroke in children. This review was the first study from Victoria’s dissertation research, and she is excited to continue her studies on dysphagia in children after stroke.

Elissa Greco (PhD student) conducted a systematic review on dysphagia treatment for patients with head and neck cancer treated with radiotherapy. Through meta-analysis, she found that behavioural dysphagia intervention is beneficial to measures of swallow function and physiology, regardless of intervention start time. This study was the first to pool data from several randomized controlled trials and observational studies to determine the overall benefit from active dysphagia intervention. This study is now published in a high impact journal (International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics).