MODAM (Multi-modal Dysphagia Management System)

• Category: Medical Devices
• Investment Status: Pre-Seed
• Medical Field: Other
• Patent Status: Provisional
• Development Status: POC
• Medical Center: Rain Medical Center\ Holon Institute of Technology

• Inventors: Dr. Hagit Shoffel-Havakuk – Beilinson
  Sajaa Assi – Beilinson
  Dr. Michal Balberg – HIT
  Dr. Avihai Aharon – HIT
  Dr. Jonathan Rubin – HIT
  Yael Avni – HIT
  Dr. Heftsi Ragones – HIT
  Dr. Daniil Umansky – HIT
  

Background:
▪ Swallowing is a complex sequence of finely coordinated events requiring both sensory and motor functions with voluntary movements and involuntary reflexes.
▪ Dysphagia is a disorder of the swallowing system causing difficulty or inability to form a bolus or to move the bolus safely from the mouth to the stomach. Patients with dysphagia may suffer from malnutrition, dehydration and severe life-threatening lung infections due to aspirations.
▪ The prevalence of dysphagia is increasing with age, and therefore is expected to rise in the next decades, since the world population is aging. The reported prevalence of dysphagia among nursing home residents is 50-70%. Current estimates suggest that the prevalence in the general population in adults over the age of 50 years is as high as 22%.
▪ Dysphagia can be caused by various etiologies and medical conditions, which include: neurological disorders (e.g., stroke, brain injury, Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis), head and neck region conditions (e.g., H&N cancer, H&N surgery, radiotherapy, post-intubation and dental or oral health related problems). Many other situations may cause dysphagia, such as: medications side effects, metabolic disturbances, infectious diseases (e.g., post COVID-19), pulmonary diseases and gastroesophageal reflux. Dysphagia may also be attributed to the general processes of normal aging.

The problem:
▪ The currently available assessment tools for dysphagia are subjective, and are either invasive (FEES) or expose the patient to high radiation dosage with as much radiation as 250 to 3,500 chest X-rays per exam (videofluoroscopy/MBS).
▪ For that reasons there is a lack in a reliable objective non-invasive assessment tool that can be easily repeated in order to examine progress and treatment response.
▪ Furthermore, there is a need for a versatile and reliable biofeedback tool which enables an affordable and appealing dysphagia training platform that can be used by both patients alone and together with clinicians.

MODAM (Multi-modal Dysphagia Management System)
▪ The MODAM was developed by a collaboration between HIT (Holon Institute of Technology) MADE (Medical Assistive Design & Engineering) LAB and the RMC (Rabin Medical Center) swallowing disorders team.
▪ The MODAM is a wearable non-invasive system for measuring swallowing in real time using: impedance, EMG and vibration and acoustic sensors. The system is affordable and the electrodes are placed within a single adhesive disposable band which is placed around the neck.
▪ The MODAM can serve as an objective measuring tool for diagnosis and as a biofeedback tool for training.
▪ The MODAM prototype is ready for “proof of concept” clinical trial that will demonstrate product feasibility of swallowing sequence assessment in healthy and dysphagia patients.