Moving Forward with Dysphagia Care: Implementing Strategies during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond.
Mark A Fritz, Rebecca J Howell, Martin B Brodsky, Debra M Suiter, Shumon I Dhar, Anais Rameau, Theresa Richard, Michelle Skelley, John R Ashford, Ashli K O'Rourke, Maggie A Kuhn
PMID 32519150WHAT IT FOUND
This paper offers clinical guidelines and algorithms for performing swallowing assessments safely during the pandemic.
It does not report original patient data or outcomes, so there are no findings here to change clinical practice.
What this paper is
This is a clinical guidance document describing strategies for delivering dysphagia care during the pandemic, including personal protective equipment protocols and triage algorithms for instrumental evaluations. It does not report original patient data, methods, or outcomes, so there are no clinical findings here to act on.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the suggested algorithms for delaying or prioritizing instrumental swallowing assessments as evidence-based clinical trial results. These are expert recommendations created to navigate the evolving pandemic, not tested interventions with proven efficacy.