A start-up company based in University College Cork (UCC) offers new hope to patients with Parkinson’s Disease – speech technology that can assist them to maintain their voice and slow down the progression of their disease, writes Terence Cosgrave T he company – Telea – is a company that answers the question: “What do you get when you cross a speech and language therapist with a software engineer?” Clare Meskill is the speech and language therapist and Dave Calnan is the software engineer – and those two individuals – together with the support of Health Innovation Hub Ireland (HIHI) – have produced an answer to that question – software technology that benefits people struggling with speech. And Telea says their innovative digital speech therapy technology has the potential to help the 12,000 people in Ireland living with Parkinson’s Disease (PD). The company’s home therapy platform and app provides a connection between Speech and Language Therapists (SLTs) and outpatients with Parkinson’s disease, allowing the therapists to monitor the patient’s progress and treat them remotely.
This platform, the company says, is a ‘gamechanger’ for people with PD as it assists people to maintain their voice, and slow down progression of the disease. The platform empowers people with PD to proactively drive intervention by increasing the quality, quantity, and consistency of treatment with high dose, timely, prescribed interventions, which they can do at home..
