Voxello Announces Letter of Intent with Leading Speech Generation Company

October 13, 2015 | By Business Wire News

CORALVILLE, Iowa

Voxello today announced that the company has signed a letter of intent agreement (LOI) with Saltillo Corporation, a subsidiary of Prentke Romich Company (PRC). PRC is a global leader in the development and manufacture of technology solutions for people with speech disabilities. The letter outlines how the two companies will collaborate to develop a dedicated speech generation device for the hospital market.

Voxello provides solutions for disabled hospitalized patients who cannot communicate by traditional means. The company’s first product, the noddle™, allows disabled patients to access nurse call and speech generation devices. Saltillo’s NOVA chat is a versatile speech-generating device with proprietary software designed to help individuals acquire and use language skills. The NOVA chat software was an ideal platform on which to build a speech application for the hospital environment. The two companies have already developed both the software and templates that are needed for the critical care environment within the hospital, noddle-chat^TM.

Dave Hershberger, President of Saltillo Corporation, commented, “Expanding this technology into the hospital is a significant endeavor. Voxello has done an outstanding job of identifying the hospital needs and meeting those with their unique device. We believe that our tailored software solution combined with Voxello’s noddle device will have a significant impact on hospitalized patients. We are very pleased to be part of this effort.”

Voxello CEO Rives Bird added, “There are 3.9 million patients each year in our hospitals that cannot communicate by speaking. Our technology coupled with Saltillo’s allows these patients to effectively communicate their needs.” Bird continued, “Current literature reports that these patients are 3 times more likely to experience a preventable adverse event compared to the rest of hospitalized patients. It’s Voxello’s goal to reduce these complications thereby saving hospitals millions of dollars, while at the same time improving patient satisfaction.”

Richard Hurtig, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer at Voxello, commented on Voxello’s clinical trials of the noddle^TM and the noddle-chat^TM. “In phase 1 we are analyzing data from patients who are currently able to communicate vs. those who are unable to summon a nurse and communicate. Our preliminary analysis shows a significant difference between the responses of these two groups. Our phase 2 clinical trial will determine the impact of the noddle^TM and noddle-chat^TM on patient satisfaction and ultimately prove just how big of an impact we can have on the quality of patient care.”

About Voxello

Voxello provides solutions for disabled hospitalized patients who cannot communicate by traditional means. The company’s first product, the noddle™, allows disabled patients to access nurse call and speech generation devices through other voluntary gestures such as blinking an eye or making a clicking sound with their tongue. The noddle^TM detects these gestures and controls other devices such as a nurse call and speech generation devices. For more information about Voxello, please visit www.voxello.com.

About Saltillo Corporation

Saltillo Corporation, headquartered in Millersburg, Ohio, develops and manufactures augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices, computer access products, and other assistive technology for people with speech disabilities. For more information about Saltillo, please visit www.saltillo.com.