Operationalizing Clinical Speech Analytics: Moving From Features to Measures for Real-World Clinical Impact.
Julie Liss, Visar Berisha
PMID 38838248WHAT IT FOUND
An objective smartphone measure of articulatory precision in ALS matched clinician ratings and tracked speech decline.
It may help SLPs plan communication support.
Key findings
01The articulatory precision measure agreed with SLP perceptual ratings (r = .9) and was highly repeatable on ALS speech samples (intraclass correlation coefficient = .97).
02The measure correlated with the ALSFRS-R speech item score (r = .82), and its decline rate correlated with ALSFRS-R Speech (r = .37) and Bulbar (r = .41) decline rates.
03In the pridopidine ALS trial, a prespecified speech analysis showed improvement compared with placebo, but the primary ALSFRS-R and survival endpoints and the secondary muscle strength and respiratory function endpoints were not significant.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
This is a research note and case illustration, not a full report of a new study. The article does not report how many participants were studied or the full methods of the original ALS studies; it directs readers to earlier publications. The validation numbers are presented for articulatory precision in ALS, and the authors note that generalizing the approach to other conditions, such as autism spectrum disorder, remains uncertain. The pridopidine speech finding is a prespecified analysis in a trial whose primary ALSFRS-R and survival endpoints and secondary muscle strength and respiratory function endpoints were not significant.
Declared interests
The article reports support from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders of the National Institutes of Health under awards R13DC003383 and R01DC006859 to Liss and Berisha. It states the content is the authors' responsibility and does not necessarily represent NIH views. No author conflict-of-interest list is given in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that pridopidine improves speech or that this measure proves a drug works. The speech improvement was a prespecified analysis in a trial whose primary ALSFRS-R and survival endpoints and secondary muscle strength and respiratory function endpoints were not significant.