University of Illinois and NCSA researchers are bringing the medical specialists to the patients.

Early and accurate diagnoses and evaluations of medical conditions can save lives, money, time, and a whole lot of stress on patients and their families. Yet diagnosis and evaluation often depend on circumstances that have nothing to do with a patient's medical condition. Circumstances such as where a patient lives and what medical specialists are available in that area suggest that a person's zip code can be a good indicator of the quality of his or her medical care.

For example dysphagia, or a difficulty in swallowing, afflicts several hundred thousand people each year, including the elderly, premature babies, stroke and cancer patients, and people with neurological disorders. Undiagnosed, dysphagia can lead to respiratory problems, including life-threatening pneumonia caused by food or liquid in the lungs, and to malnutrition, which slows recovery from illness. Dysphagia can occur anywhere between the lips and the stomach. Oropharyngeal dysphagia, which results from mouth or throat problems, is generally diagnosed and treated by speech-language pathologists who have special expertise in this area.

		Despite a large number of oropharyngeal dysphagia patients, many rural and small community hospitals have no experts on staff qualified to diagnose the condition. Some states with large rural areas have no more than a handful of dysphagia experts, mostly concentrated in larger cities. Unequal care levels depend on whether or not you are lucky enough to have the right medical professionals nearby. Adrienne Perlman, a professor in the department of speech and hearing science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has studied, diagnosed, and treated dysphagia for 20 years. She recalls treating patients at a regional hospital in Iowa.
	Adrienne Perlman and Weerasak Witthawaskul, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

"The patients would often travel three, even four hours to see me, sometimes by ambulance because they were so sick" says Perlman. "They would be exhausted by the time they'd see me. I remember thinking 'there's got to be a better way to do this.'"

Access Online | Posted 1-29-2002