Biomedical subjects

Barbara Bernhardt

Publications and source records attributed to Barbara Bernhardt.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Genetic testing for susceptibility to breast and ovarian cancer: evaluating the impact of a direct-to-consumer marketing campaign on physicians' knowledge and practices.

PURPOSE: To assess the impact of direct-to-consumer marketing of genetic testing for risk of breast and ovarian cancer by a biotechnology company on: 1) physicians' knowledge; 2) reasons given when asking questions about the test; and 3) physicians' practice patterns in two pilot cities where the campaign took place and two control cities. METHODS: Survey of randomly selected family physicians, internists, obstetrician-gynecologists, and oncologists from May 1-May 21, 2003. RESULTS: Physicians' knowledge did not differ between pilot and control cities. Significant differences (pilot versus control cities) were seen in the reasons patients gave for asking questions about testing. More physicians in pilot cities (14%) than control cities (7%) reported an increase in the number of times they ordered genetic testing for breast and ovarian cancer risk in the previous 6 months (adjusted odds ratio 1.9, 95% confidence interval, 1.2-3.1). Awareness of professional guidelines and being in a practice with a policy on genetic testing for risk of breast and ovarian cancer were associated with physicians' behaviors and interest among patients in testing. CONCLUSIONS: Given the complexity and limitations of genetic testing for risk of breast and ovarian cancer, the development and broad dissemination of clinical guidelines and education of physicians are needed.

Breast Neoplasms↗

PubMed2005

Opinions about new reproductive genetic technologies: hopes and fears for our genetic future.

OBJECTIVE: To identify underlying beliefs and values shaping Americans' opinions about the appropriate use of new reproductive genetic technologies (RGTs), including preimplantation genetic diagnosis, hypothetical genetic modification, and sperm sorting for sex selection. DESIGN: Scenarios with ethical dilemmas presented to 21 focus groups organized by sex, race/ethnicity, religion, age, education, and parental status. SETTING: A city in each state: California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Tennessee. PARTICIPANT(S): One hundred and eighty-one paid volunteers, ages 18 to 68. INTERVENTION(S): None. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Beliefs and values that shape participants' opinions about the appropriate use of new RGTs. RESULT(S): Regardless of demographic characteristics, focus group participants considered six key factors when determining the appropriateness of using RGTs: [1] whether embryos would be destroyed; [2] the nature of the disease or trait being avoided or sought; [3] technological control over "natural" reproduction; [4] the value of suffering, disability, and difference; [5] the importance of having genetically related children; and [6] the kind of future people desire or fear. CONCLUSION(S): Public opinions about the appropriate use of RGTs are shaped by numerous complementary and conflicting values beyond classic abortion arguments. Clinicians and policy-makers have the opportunity to consider these opinions when creating messages and crafting policy.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Forum on intervocalic consonants in phonological development.

Intervocalic consonants have received far less attention in research on first language acquisition than consonants at the edges of words. Theories have predicted that intervocalic consonants may show special properties because they are in a special position in syllable structure (constituting both an onset, or syllable-initial consonant, and a coda, or syllable-final consonant) or because they are in a special environment (between vowels). This editorial provides an overview of the issues, a review of the acquisition literature on the subject, and an introduction to the five papers in this special volume.

Humans↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Intervocalic consonants in the speech of English-speaking Canadian children with phonological disorders.

Acquisition of intervocalic consonants has been insufficiently studied, both in terms of subject numbers, and in terms of differentiating syllabification patterns from those involving vowel feature assimilation. The question has remained: are English intervocalic consonants syllable-initial (onsets), syllable-final (codas) or ambisyllabic? This study addresses these issues in the speech of 44 English-speaking Canadian children with phonological disorders. Intervocalic consonants resembled word-initial onsets in that they were deleted less often than word-final consonants. When there was no deletion, intervocalic consonants were more likely to be segmentally unique (ambisyllabic?) than like onsets or codas. In segmental inventories, segments rarely appeared only in intervocalic position, and showed an equal affinity to onsets and codas, with two exceptions. Sonorant continuants and, to a lesser extent, fricatives showed patterns in intervocalic position that may have reflected assimilation. For children with less severe disorders, velars and fricatives occurred intervocalically only if they also occurred in codas, suggesting a coda-like (ambisyllabic?) status.

Articulation Disorders↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Speech habilitation of hard of hearing adolescents using electropalatography and ultrasound as evaluated by trained listeners.

Four adolescents with moderate to severe sensorineural hearing losses and moderately unintelligible speech participated in a 14-week speech therapy study using two dynamic visual feedback technologies, electropalatography and ultrasound imaging. Electropalatography provides information about tongue-hard palate contact points. Ultrasound displays images of tongue shape and movement in two dimensions from the tip to the root. Treatment targets for all participants included a sibilant place contrast (/s/ versus /[symbol: see text]/), liquids /l/ and /[symbol: see text]/, and the tense-lax vowel contrast with the high vowels. Trained listener evaluations of pre- and post-treatment transcripts are reported in this paper. Significant improvements in speech production were noted across students and targets. Treatment targets improved significantly more than non-treatment test targets overall. Students showed greatest gains on consonants that were absent or marginal in their speech pre-treatment. No particular advantage of one technology over the other was evident in this sample.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Ultrasound in speech therapy with adolescents and adults.

The present paper comprises an overview of techniques using ultrasound in speech (re)habilitation. Ultrasound treatment techniques have been developed for English lingual stops, vowels, sibilants, and liquids. These techniques come from a series of small n studies with adolescents and adults with severe hearing impairment, residual speech impairment or accented speech at the Interdisciplinary Speech Research Laboratory at the University of British Columbia. Ultrasound allows excellent visualization of tongue shape features, which is especially useful for feedback during speech (re)habilitation. Further research is needed to evaluate the efficacy of ultrasound in speech (re)habilitation.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Speech, language and literacy skills 3 years later: a follow-up study of early phonological and metaphonological intervention.

BACKGROUND: Three years before the present study, 19 preschool children participated in a phonological and metaphonological intervention programme. The phonological intervention programme was based on non-linear phonological analyses. The metaphonological intervention programme included both rhyming and alliteration tasks and was directly targeted during the last section of the programme. All children made significant gains in phonology, and many in metaphonology. However, the literature notes a tendency for children with history of early speech or language impairments to have difficulty acquiring literacy skills or to show residual speech impairment. The participants of the 1998 study were therefore considered at risk for continuing speech impairment and/or academic performance. AIMS: The primary objectives were to document the children's later speech, language and literacy skills, and to determine potential relationships between previous and concurrent child factors. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Twelve children from the original cohort (aged 6;1-8;5) received a comprehensive battery of speech, language, cognitive and academic tasks 3 years after the original study. Data were evaluated both concurrently and in terms of the children's preschool performance. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Five of the children had residual phonological impairment. Only two children showed below average reading (decoding and comprehension), although five also showed below average spelling performance. Children with limitations in verbal memory, language production and metaphonology at the follow-up point were more likely to show delays in literacy. Language production skills at the follow-up point were most strongly correlated with literacy development. In terms of the early study, the strongest predictor for literacy development was performance on metaphonology tasks at the end of the early intervention study. The strongest predictor for ongoing speech impairment was phonological skill at the end of the early study. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that early phonological and metaphonological intervention can promote normalization of speech development and normal acquisition of literacy skills for at least some children with a history of severe phonological impairment. In the earlier study, the component structure of words (onsets, rhymes, codas) was emphasized through both metaphonological and non-linear phonological intervention. Risk for literacy and ongoing speech impairment can be reduced through early intervention that draws attention to the structure of words.

Child↗