Systems and methods for the predictive assessment and neurodevelopment therapy for oral feeding

1. A system for improving an oral feeding ability of a patient, the system comprising:

an assessment device to contact a patient and collect data related to an oral feeding ability of the patient;

a computing device containing a processor to execute an assessment and therapy application; and

the assessment and therapy application to:

receive the data related to the oral feeding ability;

predict one or more areas of neurological muscle activity that need further development while receiving the data related to the oral feeding ability;

wherein the assessment device determines that the patient has one of a weak NNS suck pressure less than or equal to ten cmH2O and an appropriate NNS suck pressure in a range of fifteen-twenty cmH2O; and

develop a neurological therapy treatment for improving the one or more areas of neurological muscle activity that need further development.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the oral feeding ability is improved by prophylactic feeding, wherein the assessment application determines a burst profile based on a pulse generated by the patient to reinforce a non-nutritive suck.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the assessment application is in an “always on” mode of operation.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the oral feeding ability is improved by “Reactive” pulse training, wherein the system analyzes a patient performance during a therapy stimulus and a moderate stimulus.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the system assesses and develops a therapy for treating a sucking action and a swallowing action of the patient, the system further comprising:

a nutritive bottle mechanism to provide a nutritive bolus to the patient; and

a transducer to detect the swallowing action of the patient.

6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the bolus has a fixed-volume.

7. The system of claim 5 , wherein the system further assess patient breathing and simulates breast feeding, the system further comprising an adaptive-flow fluid pump to mimic a flow of breast milk, wherein the pump varies and adapts a volume of the bolus as a function of patient effort.

8. The system of claim 7 , wherein the patient effort is defined by a pressure and a nutritive suck activity of the patient, such that the patient must exert greater effort to increase the volume of the bolus.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the one or more areas of neurological muscle activity that need further development include a regularity and number of individual sucks in individual non-nutritive suck (NNS) bursts, an organization of collective suck bursts, an intensity of effort, and an absence of NNS activity.

10. A method for improving an oral feeding ability of a patient, the method comprising:

contacting a patient with an assessment device to collect data related to an oral feeding ability of the patient;

executing an assessment and therapy application on a processor of a computing device in communication with the assessment device; and

at the assessment and therapy application executing on the processor:

receiving the data related to the oral feeding ability; the assessment and therapy application executing on the processor determining that the patient has one of a weak NNS suck pressure less than or equal to ten cmH2O and an appropriate NNS suck pressure in a range of fifteen-twenty cmH2O;

predicting one or more areas of neurological muscle activity that need further development while receiving the data related to the oral feeding ability; and

developing a neurological therapy treatment for improving the one or more areas of neurological muscle activity that need further development.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising improving the oral feeding ability by prophylactic feeding by:

determining a burst profile based on a pulse generated by the patient to reinforce a non-nutritive suck, at the assessment application.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the assessment application is in an “always on” mode of operation.

13. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:

improving the oral feeding by “Reactive” pulse training; and

analyzing a patient performance during a therapy stimulus and a moderate stimulus.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising assessing and developing a therapy for treating a sucking action and a swallowing action of the patient by:

providing a nutritive bolus to the patient with a nutritive bottle mechanism; and

using a transducer to detect the swallowing action of the patient.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein the bolus has a fixed-volume.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising assessing patient breathing and simulating breast feeding by:

an adaptive-flow fluid pump to mimic a flow of breast milk, wherein the pump varies and adapts a volume of the bolus as a function of patient effort.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the patient effort is defined by a pressure and a nutritive suck activity of the patient, such that the patient must exert greater effort to increase the volume of the bolus.

18. The method of claim 10 , wherein the one or more areas of neurological muscle activity that need further development include a regularity and number of individual sucks in individual non-nutritive suck (NNS) bursts, an organization of collective suck bursts, an intensity of effort, and an absence of NNS activity.