These three individuals have bridged the gap between Speech and Language Pathology and Biomedical Engineering by forming a cohesive team to invent and develop SpeechVive™, a behind-the-ear device, to increase speech clarity in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Ninety percent of the 1 million patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) in the US suffer from speech impairments which cause them to withdraw from conversation and social interaction. While the physical symptoms associated with PD are often easily recognized by the general public, the decrease in communicative ability associated with PD is an often overlooked symptom which affects a majority of this population. Jessica, Jim, and Kirk recognized the need for a technology to help patients with PD communicate more effectively, throughout the progression of PD without a dependency on the patient’s cognitive ability for continued efficacy and therapeutic success. SpeechVive™ has demonstrated effectiveness in a multi-year thirty-nine patient clinical trial conducted in the patient’s home environment. The clinical trial evidence conclusively demonstrated SpeechVive™ was effective in improving speech clarity across mild, moderate and severe PD progression stages, while existing behavioral therapies are only effective in PD patients with mild symptoms.

The SpeechVive™ device is in its third generation of product development and the commercial device will be finalized in September 2012. A 20 patient clinical trial with the commercially available SpeechVive™ device will begin at Purdue University, James Madison University, and University of Florida in November 2012 and commercial sales will launch in early 2013.

The Innovation and Commercialization Center, Inc. d/b/a Purdue Biomedical Technology Incubator (PurdueBTI) functions as an accelerator for medical device development and preparation for commercialization. PurdueBTI’s mission is:

• To foster the development of innovative medical devices that may significantly improve health and health care.
• To promote the application of new technologies in biomedical engineering.
• To assist teams in navigating the transition of medical device development from the academic to the commercial environment by providing funds and services.

As teams focus on the science and technology, PurdueBTI provides resources to further develop and realize benefits from their ideas. The PurdueBTI team closely collaborates with scientists and engineers, providing added value and hastening time-to-market while meeting the growing need to translate discoveries into useful products. PurdueBTI’s goal for each project is to increase the likelihood of commercial success by adding value through industry-standard design and development skills, and financial support.

Congratulations, SpeechVive team, for your many successes!