Comparing dysphagia therapy in head and neck cancer patients in Australia with international healthcare systems

AbstractPurpose: The Australian healthcare system has invested heavily in multidisciplinary cancer care teams. Despite such investments, guidelines that clearly delineate standard of care dysphagia treatment are lacking and services provided to Head and Neck Cancer (HNC) patients are not always consistent. There is little consensus regarding the frequency and intensity of dysphagia therapy. This is largely due to a lack of well-designed clinical trials that establish the efficacy of any dysphagia therapy in this patient population. The aim of this study was to evaluate HNC dysphagia therapy patterns among Australian speech-language pathologists (SLPs).Method: A 22 question internet-based survey was administered to a web-based professional interest group. Results were analysed by institution type and individual clinical experience.Result: A response rate of 46% was achieved (67 out of 144 surveyed). This survey identified several aspects of dysphagia management that were provided uniformly in addition to m...