Healthcare Disparities in Dysphagia: Parallels Between Our Bodies and Society

Swallow the Gap

Raele Donetha Robison, PhD, CCC-SLP of University of Wisconsin-Madison offers her perspectives on healthcare inequities faced by individuals with dysphagia. With her rich understanding of complexities in patient care - such as the concepts of functional reserves and homeostasis - she provides enlightening comparisons between the challenges encountered in healthcare on both individual and societal scales.
Bio:
Dr. Robison is a Speech-Language Pathologist and current postdoctoral fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) in Dr. Nicole Rogus-Pulia’s Swallowing and Salivary Bioscience Laboratory. Dr. Robison is currently supported by a NIH specialized D-SPAN pre- to postdoctoral K00 fellowship grant. Under this NIA-supported K00 grant mechanism, Dr. Robison is sponsored by Drs. Nicole Rogus-Pulia and Nadine Connor. The overarching aim of this work is geared towards understanding how interrelated physiologic capacities throughout the body contribute to the development of dysphagia in frail older adults. Dr. Robison is also passionate about understanding how health disparities preclude equity surrounding the eating experience. She is an affiliate member of the UW-Madison Center for Health Disparities Research and hopes to identify barriers and expand access to swallowing care among socioeconomically disadvantaged groups.
Episode resources:

Contact: [e-mail]
Health Equity Tourism: Ravaging the Justice Landscape (Lett et al., 2022): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35150324/
Fried Frailty Index derived from Cardiovascular Health Study: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/6/8/e012091/DC1/embed/inline-supplementary-material-1.pdf?download=true
Swallowing and Salivary Biosciences Lab: https://ssbl.wisc.edu/

Support the Show.

Live Webinar Events:
https://swallowthegap.com/livecourses
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/GapEducationLLC

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/swallowpatho

Chapters

1. Intro Music (00:00:01)

2. Guest Intro - Dr. Raele Donetha Robison (00:01:30)

3. Health Equity Tourism (00:03:07)

4. Bridging from dysphagia to healthcare equity (00:07:32)

5. Nutritional homeostasis, reserves, and frailty (00:10:44)

6. Research gap: When do reserves become a problem? (00:16:21)

7. Parallels between functional reserves and health disparities (00:21:40)

8. Fundamental Cause Theory (00:23:28)

9. Shifting burden in dysphagia care - A public health concern (00:27:07)

10. Having uncomfortable conversations for the right reasons… (00:33:00)

11. …with the right intentions (00:39:19)

12. Outro (00:43:30)