36 min
Episode #77: Voltage Drop and Aphasia Treatment: Thinking About the Research-Practice Dosage Gap in Aphasia Rehabilitation: In Conversation with Rob Cavanaugh Aphasia Access Conversations
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- Medicine
Dr. Janet Patterson, Research Speech-Language Pathologist at the VA Northern California Healthcare System, speaks with Rob Cavanaugh of the University of Pittsburgh, about dosage in delivering aphasia treatments, and about the difference between dosage in research settings and dosage in clinical settings.
In today’s episode you will hear about:
The concept of voltage drop, its definition, and how it applies to aphasia rehabilitation, Opportunity cost and factors that affect the ability to deliver a treatment protocol with fidelity to the research evidence, and Mindful clinical decision-making to assure delivery of the best and most efficient treatment possible within existing clinical parameters.
Janet Patterson: Welcome to this edition of Aphasia Access Podversations, a series of conversations about community aphasia programs that follow the LPAA model. My name is Janet Patterson, and I am a Research Speech-Language Pathologist at the VA Northern California Healthcare System in Martinez, California. Today I am delighted to be speaking with my friend and an excellent researcher, Rob Cavanaugh, from the University of Pittsburgh. Rob and I have had several conversations about aspects of aphasia rehabilitation, beginning when he was a Student Fellow in the Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences. Our conversation today centers on a topic we both have been thinking about, dosage and aphasia treatment.
As Rob and I start this podcast, I want to give you a quick reminder that this year we are sharing episodes that highlight at least one of the gap areas in aphasia care identified in the Aphasia Access White Paper, authored by Dr. Nina Simmons-Mackie. For more information on this White Paper, check out Podversations Episode 62 with Dr. Liz Hoover, as she describes these 10 gap areas, or go to the Aphasia Access website.
This episode with Rob Cavanaugh focuses on gap area 4 - Insufficient intensity of aphasia intervention across the continuum of care. Treatment intensity is not a singular concept, but rather has several components to it, including decisions about dosage. Much has been written about intensity in aphasia rehabilitation, however, as yet there is no clear and convincing argument about what, exactly, is the best intensity for delivering an aphasia treatment to an individual with aphasia. I hope our conversation today can begin to shed some light on this topic.
Rob Cavanaugh is a third year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Pittsburgh. Before moving to Pittsburgh, he worked as a clinical speech-language pathologist in Charlotte, North Carolina, in outpatient and inpatient rehabilitation settings. His research interests focus on identifying implementation gaps in aphasia rehabilitation, improving patient access to therapy services through technology, improving treatment outcomes, and advancing statistical methods used in aphasia research. Rob received his master's degree in Speech and Hearing Sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is currently doing interesting work at Pitt, and I look forward to our conversations, Rob, today and in the future. Welcome, Rob to Aphasia Access Podversations.
Rob Cavanaugh: Thanks Janet, it's great to be here, and I'm really excited to talk about dosage and aphasia treatment.
Janet: Great! I think the only thing I'm going to have to worry about Rob, is keeping us contained because we could probably talk for days on this subject, and our listeners would get tired of hearing us.
Rob: That is definitely true.
Janet: Today, as I said, Rob, I'd like to talk to you about dosage and aphasia treatment. You and your colleagues recently published a paper in AJSLP that compared dosage in research papers and dosage in clinical practice. The team did great work, and I think it's an impressive paper. As we try to create an effec
Dr. Janet Patterson, Research Speech-Language Pathologist at the VA Northern California Healthcare System, speaks with Rob Cavanaugh of the University of Pittsburgh, about dosage in delivering aphasia treatments, and about the difference between dosage in research settings and dosage in clinical settings.
In today’s episode you will hear about:
The concept of voltage drop, its definition, and how it applies to aphasia rehabilitation, Opportunity cost and factors that affect the ability to deliver a treatment protocol with fidelity to the research evidence, and Mindful clinical decision-making to assure delivery of the best and most efficient treatment possible within existing clinical parameters.
Janet Patterson: Welcome to this edition of Aphasia Access Podversations, a series of conversations about community aphasia programs that follow the LPAA model. My name is Janet Patterson, and I am a Research Speech-Language Pathologist at the VA Northern California Healthcare System in Martinez, California. Today I am delighted to be speaking with my friend and an excellent researcher, Rob Cavanaugh, from the University of Pittsburgh. Rob and I have had several conversations about aspects of aphasia rehabilitation, beginning when he was a Student Fellow in the Academy of Neurologic Communication Disorders and Sciences. Our conversation today centers on a topic we both have been thinking about, dosage and aphasia treatment.
As Rob and I start this podcast, I want to give you a quick reminder that this year we are sharing episodes that highlight at least one of the gap areas in aphasia care identified in the Aphasia Access White Paper, authored by Dr. Nina Simmons-Mackie. For more information on this White Paper, check out Podversations Episode 62 with Dr. Liz Hoover, as she describes these 10 gap areas, or go to the Aphasia Access website.
This episode with Rob Cavanaugh focuses on gap area 4 - Insufficient intensity of aphasia intervention across the continuum of care. Treatment intensity is not a singular concept, but rather has several components to it, including decisions about dosage. Much has been written about intensity in aphasia rehabilitation, however, as yet there is no clear and convincing argument about what, exactly, is the best intensity for delivering an aphasia treatment to an individual with aphasia. I hope our conversation today can begin to shed some light on this topic.
Rob Cavanaugh is a third year Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Pittsburgh. Before moving to Pittsburgh, he worked as a clinical speech-language pathologist in Charlotte, North Carolina, in outpatient and inpatient rehabilitation settings. His research interests focus on identifying implementation gaps in aphasia rehabilitation, improving patient access to therapy services through technology, improving treatment outcomes, and advancing statistical methods used in aphasia research. Rob received his master's degree in Speech and Hearing Sciences from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is currently doing interesting work at Pitt, and I look forward to our conversations, Rob, today and in the future. Welcome, Rob to Aphasia Access Podversations.
Rob Cavanaugh: Thanks Janet, it's great to be here, and I'm really excited to talk about dosage and aphasia treatment.
Janet: Great! I think the only thing I'm going to have to worry about Rob, is keeping us contained because we could probably talk for days on this subject, and our listeners would get tired of hearing us.
Rob: That is definitely true.
Janet: Today, as I said, Rob, I'd like to talk to you about dosage and aphasia treatment. You and your colleagues recently published a paper in AJSLP that compared dosage in research papers and dosage in clinical practice. The team did great work, and I think it's an impressive paper. As we try to create an effec
36 min