Dysphagia2Go: A New Way to Do Dysphagia Evaluations on the iPad

Call me a little partial, but I LOVE this app. Dysphagia2Go gave me a new way to use my iPad in dysphagia therapy, with the confidence that it is HIPAA compliant. Yes, I am one of the authors, but the app grew out of a real need to complete a quick, simple clinical dysphagia evaluation. It helps clinicians assess every area of dysphagia and complete a chart review that is as thorough as possible.

Getting started

When you open the app, start by adding your patient’s information. You can save patients or bring up previous ones. For a new patient, you enter a patient ID, first and last name, date of birth and physician’s name. If you are not comfortable adding a name, you can use a number or initials.

Be sure to go to Settings and add your therapist and institution information, then turn it on to include it in your reports.

The evaluation, step by step

1. Chart review. Enter the reason for referral, physician order (yes or no), diagnosis, current method of nutrition, respiratory status and more, with a text box for any other pertinent information.
2. Oral mech exam. Record information about all the oral and pharyngeal areas we assess, including the tongue, teeth and lips.
3. Trials. Use the consistencies provided or skip the ones you don’t use. For each, assess oral control of the bolus and the pharyngeal stage of the swallow, and add comments.
4. Recommendations. Recommend compensatory strategies, exercises, MBSS, FEES, therapy, no therapy or referrals.

When the evaluation is complete, you can print the report wirelessly or email it to yourself. You can also paste it into your facility’s own report if one is required.

A few tips

First and foremost, lock your iPad with a passcode. This protects the privacy of the information saved in the app, and everything else on your iPad, should someone “borrow” it.

We hope you enjoy Dysphagia2Go!