Amy Nordness, Ph.D., has something to say.
And she’s able to say it.
That’s a skill that the new director of the Munroe-Meyer Institute’s Speech Language Pathology Department doesn’t take for granted, and she hopes to share it with the people her department serves.
Dr. Nordness, formerly the director of the speech department at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital, arrived at UNMC in January with a goal for communication success.
“The goal is that our patients can communicate as best they can with all the providers they see here. This will help them be an active partner in their medical decision making.”
Not surprisingly, communication has been at the heart of Dr. Nordness’s research and clinical experience. Her goals at MMI include developing a clinical research program, increasing the department’s impact of children and adults, establishing more specialized student training opportunities, and advancing available services.
“We already have a pretty wide reach,” she said. “I would like to use new technology to help our patients achieve greater outcomes. I’d like to serve our patients who have the most severe communication impairments by using new technologies to put them back in control of their own communication.
“Speech problems can occur across the continuum of care, from people who lose control of their speech during a short hospital stay, to people who have completely lost their speaking ability, to people who have a developmental motor speech impairment.
“I’m looking forward to trying out new treatments and technology in the MMI Motor Speech & Voice Lab, the hospital and the clinics,” she said.
As part of her goals, Dr. Nordness intends to keep her staff on the cusp of the latest technological and clinical innovations, such as advanced eye tracking for speech generating devices, NTrainer therapy for infants to retrain the suck swallow breathe pattern, Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of the Swallow, or FEES — and to encourage clinical and research collaboration with other disciplines at UNMC and Nebraska Medicine to benefit patients.
One area of research will be focused on computer-based practice for children with childhood apraxia of speech, which Dr. Nordness has researched in the past.
“We’ll be looking at ways for children to make gains faster and gain more control of their speech,” she said. We’ve got to help build up those building blocks.
“I’m very glad to be here,” she said. “I’m really excited to start.”
Well said.
Welcome to MMI Amy.