Professor Arlene McCurtin (UL School of Allied Health) is leading the SPARC project (Swallow Perspectives, Advocacy and Research Collective). SPARC is a solution-focused interdisciplinary, international network of clinicians and researchers focused on challenging clinical issues in the area of eating, drinking and swallowing to help improve clinical practice and policy-making. Impacts of SPARCs work on the intervention of thickened liquids, employed to reduce aspiration in people with swallowing disorders and beset by evidentiary, person centred and medical consequences, has led to a position statement from The Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists (2024) altering recommendations regarding this intervention, and a targeted grant call from the (National Institutes of Health Research) focused on de-implementation of the intervention (2024).
Email:
CIRcUL@ul.ie