Handheld cordless non-nutrition sucking assessment device and method of using such a device

摘要

A handheld device detects and measures orofacial activity, including oral cavity pressure and one or more compressions, deformations, displacements, or deflections of a pacifier engaged to the device. The compressions, deformations, displacements, or deflections of the pacifier refer to changes in the shape of the pacifier, caused by patient, relative to an initial state of the pacifier. The device translates the oral cavity pressure and compressions into an electrical signal, digitizes the electrical signal, and performs analytical processing of the digitized signal to extract physiological artifacts salient to the patient's ability to orally feed using a software application executing on a processor within the device. The device automates and simplifies the assessment of a patient's readiness to orally feed by presenting graphical and numeric scores for organization and effort of non-nutritive suck.