# Measuring what happens in voice therapy: refinement and testing of a voice therapy taxonomy

> **NIH NIH R21** · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · 2021 · $41,682

## Abstract

Project Summary: Measuring what happens in voice therapy: refinement and testing of a voice therapy
taxonomy
 The current healthcare landscape demands that medical interventions have strong empirical evidence to
guide clinically effective treatment selection and delivery. For many medical treatments that deliver
interventions to a passive patient (such as medications or surgery), clinical trials and comparative effectiveness
research can describe, measure, and compare treatment ingredients in terms of changes in outcomes.
However, currently the treatment ingredients contained in complex behavioral interventions (e.g. voice therapy
approaches) are not specified in enough detail to be defined, measured, and compared with outcomes. This is
a critical barrier to the progress of all behaviorally based medical professions. The fields of rehabilitation and
psychology have invested considerable effort towards the development of treatment specification systems (i.e.,
taxonomies). While these expansive efforts have provided useful theories and overarching specification
models, a gap remains between the theoretical frameworks and the clinicians/researchers who need a
taxonomy detailed enough for use in their own subfield (e.g., voice therapy). A taxonomy of voice therapy can
help fill this serious deficiency by providing a valid and reliable list/categorization structure of treatment
ingredients. The proposed work is designed to refine a beta version of the Voice Therapy Taxonomy through
development of consensus amongst 10 voice therapy experts in three Delphi rounds (face and content
validity), creation of electronic documentation software based on the refined voice therapy taxonomy, and
establish inter-rater reliability through specification of real-life voice therapy at five different Voice Centers.
Input from rehabilitation stakeholders will include external readers (the primary investigator of PCORI’s
Rehabilitation Treatment Taxonomy (RTT) [Dr. John Whyte] and an internationally recognized speech
pathologist from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association’s (ASHA) Treatment Taxonomy Ad-hoc
Committee [Dr. Joseph Duffy]) as well as an Advisory Board consisting of the RTT executive committee. To
obtain input from clinical stakeholders, the Advisory Board will also include expert clinicians: a speech
pathologist representing the ASHA Special Interest Group on Voice (Dr. Rita Patel), and an laryngologist
representing the American Broncho-Esophagological Association (Dr. James Burns).

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10366658
- **Project number:** 3R21DC016124-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Jarrad Van Stan
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $41,682
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2017-04-01 → 2021-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10366658

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10366658, Measuring what happens in voice therapy: refinement and testing of a voice therapy taxonomy (3R21DC016124-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-29 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10366658. Licensed CC0.

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