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This aphasia-friendly medical assessment makes it easier for healthcare providers and people with aphasia to communicate effectively!
MedConcerns is a simple and easy-to-use communication tool that addresses complex communication challenges in healthcare. With embedded communication support tools, people with aphasia and other communication challenges are able to provide important information about their medical concerns and needs to their healthcare providers.
MEDCONCERNS GIVES PATIENTS WITH APHASIA THEIR VOICES BACK!
MEDCONCERNS GIVES PATIENTS WITH APHASIA THEIR VOICES BACK!
The MedConcerns app was jointly developed by a speech language pathologist and physician who work regularly with brain injury, stroke, and other diagnoses that often result in communication difficulties. Through their combined experience, they recognized a need to support their fellow healthcare providers and their patients in communicating clearly regarding medical concerns. Research shows healthcare providers have a strong desire to communicate with their patients who have aphasia or other communication impairments, but are frequently frustrated by the limitations of verbal communication and simple communication boards. Together they set off on a path to bridge this gap, and the MedConcerns app was created.
Communication problems between healthcare providers and people with aphasia impacts diagnosis and treatment with “considerable implications for healthcare quality” (Van Rijssen et al., 2020).
The result is a 3x higher risk of preventable adverse events in healthcare for people with aphasia and other communication impairments (Bartlett et al., 2008).
Research shows people with aphasia communicate more effectively when healthcare providers use supported communication and aphasia-friendly language and tools (Van Rijssen et al., 2020).
Aphasia is a language disorder that results from a brain injury—most often from a stroke.
There are at least 2 million people in the USA with aphasia (National Aphasia Association, 2024).
No one is born with aphasia. It’s an acquired disorder—one that happens after language skills have already developed.
Degrees of severity depend on the person and injury. Some people with aphasia have trouble finding words, but are able to speak in sentences. Some people have difficulty getting out any words at all.
Aphasia affects all the ways we understand and communicate language—written, spoken, and even signed—but cognition remains largely intact.
People with aphasia still have the right and the need to communicate with their doctors, friends, loved ones, and community, just like any of us, but they no longer have the ease of speaking, texting, or writing.
Fortunately, communication does not necessarily require language. Although it is more challenging, people who don’t have a shared language can still communicate without words.
Research shows people with aphasia communicate more effectively when communication partners use supported conversation and aphasia-friendly communication strategies.
Supported communication is all about making communication accessible.
In the same way that we modify buildings to make them accessible to those in wheelchairs, we modify the communication environment for increased accessibility.
By modifying the communication environment, including combining various means of expression rather than relying on speaking or writing alone, we don’t leave anyone out of the conversation.
“In supported communication, people without language disorders are encouraged to take an active role in ensuring the best exchange of information possible, providing help in the form of cueing, requesting clarification, paraphrasing, asking for verification of what one has understood, and supporting content through multiple modalities (Hallowell, 2023, p. 372).
Multiple modalities might include written & spoken language, pictures, drawing, pointing, gesture, and other aphasia-friendly communication methods.
Aphasia-friendly communication includes changes that make our message easier to receive, and that enable the person with aphasia to have an easier time conveying their own message. These include:
Our aim was to create an app that embeds supported and aphasia-friendly communication to increase accessibility for people with aphasia.
MedConcerns was specifically designed to facilitate clearer communication between people with aphasia and healthcare providers.
We know that communication disorders challenge the provision of healthcare services. Physicians have acknowledged challenges caring for these patients, impacting their confidence in making accurate diagnoses and treatment recommendations (Burns et al., 2015; Meredith et a., 2007; Ziviani et al., 2004).
As a result, adults with communication disorders are at higher risk for adverse events in health care (Bartlett et al., 2008).
MedConcerns was created to enable healthcare providers to meet unique communication needs. This is why we embedded supported conversation and aphasia-friendly communication into MedConcerns—to increase accessibility for people with aphasia and to facilitate use of supported conversation by healthcare providers when assessing medical concerns.
MedConcerns was created to facilitate clearer communication between people with aphasia and their healthcare providers, but it is also useful when other communication barriers are present.
Healthcare providers want to improve the quality of care for patients with aphasia. Most providers do not receive adequate training to meet unique communication needs. The MedConcerns app provides healthcare professionals with built-in communication tools. With MedConcerns serving as interpreter, providers can better understand patients with aphasia and uncover medical problems easier and faster.
©Communication Rescue Services LLC 2022
Patent Pending
