Clinical Decision-Making During FEES: The Impact of Residue Amount and Location

In this study, the investigator aims to identify the threshold of food residue visualized in the throat during a FEES (fiberoptic endoscopic evaluation of swallowing) that speech-language pathologists allow before restricting a patient from eating. 60 speech-language pathologists will be required to participate, with half of them watching a pre-recorded video detailing current research about residue in the throat of pharynx. The group watching the video will then re-score their images. This investigates the impact of education on clinical decision-making. Finally, 8 clinicians will meet with the researcher individually to share their clinical decision-making rationale. With this information, the researcher hopes to identify a patient population who is at risk for diet restrictions in order to encourage speech-language pathologists to extend the swallow study and trial more compensatory strategies before restricting the patient's diet.

NCT Number	NCT07278076
Lead Sponsor	Rush University Medical Center
Conditions	Decision Making
Enrollment	60 participants
Start Date	2026-11-01
Primary Completion	2027-01-01 (estimated)
Study Completion	2027-05-30 (estimated)
Updated on ClinicalTrials.gov	2026-02-20