Investigation on swallowing disorder in biometrie data measurement

Dysphagia or impaired swallowing function causes significant morbidity and mortality, and is diverse and common especially in the elderly. Dysphagia might cause aspiration pneumonia and various health problems whose severity range from trivial to lethal conditions, which often compromise the quality of life for patients. Even if the symptoms are mild, it is needed for medical attention because dysphagia could be a multidimensional problem with frequent occurrences and an early sign of serious underlying conditions. Therefore, the swallowing healthcare management is important. Dysphagia occurs during the oral and pharyngeal stage in the swallowing process regardless of age. Many medical experts in this field strongly stated that there is a necessity of healthcare study relating to swallowing disorder. In general, the evaluation of swallowing function is provided by video fluoroscopy or video endoscopy, which are currently international standards. However, those methods are invasive and restrictive examination. Therefore, the development of non-invasive/-restrictive evaluation method is one of the significant needs in dysphagia research. In my talk, I introduce some results of evaluation and investigation using the biometric measurement data of air flow, swallowing sound, and displacement by attaching two types of sensors. In addition, we discuss about the possibility of wearable sensors in the field of healthcare monitoring system.