New Technology Could Be Game Changer in Providing a "Voice" for Hospitalized
  Patients
From: Medical Design Technology - 09/08/2016

A tablet-based communication application called "Speak for Myself" was
developed by Rebecca Koszalinski, RN, PhD, during her doctoral studies under
the guidance of Ruth Tappen, EdD, RN, FAAN, the Christine E. Lynn eminent
scholar and professor in the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing at Florida
Atlantic University. Speak for Myself is proving to be an invaluable tool
empowering patients who are voiceless.

Speak for Myself enables a patient to communicate his or her level of pain
using an analog pain scale. It also helps them convey feelings of fear and
loneliness as well as their physical needs such as suctioning, repositioning
needs and requests for toileting. The app has a graphic for indicating the
location of their pain and the level of pain they are experiencing. When a
patient touches the screen to indicate the location of pain on the body
graphic, the voice says "it hurts here". Patients can use shortcuts and
single words or type in phrases or full sentences to communicate their needs.
The software is predictive so that if a patient begins to enter a word, the
program will anticipate and present likely solutions.

Read the entire article at:
https://www.mdtmag.com/article/2016/09/new-technology-could-be-game-changer-providing-voice-hospitalized-patients
http://www.fau.edu/newsdesk/articles/speak-for-myself.php

Links:
Evaluation of Speak for Myself with Patients Who Are Voiceless
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25424980

Communication Needs of Critical Care Patients Who Are Voiceless
http://journals.lww.com/cinjournal/Abstract/2016/08000/Communication_Needs_of_Critical_Care_Patients_Who.3.aspx