Ratio S/Z

Ratio S/Z is an app designed by Andreu Sauca, an experienced speech therapist and phoniatrician. It has been conceived as a tool for the evaluation and the monitoring of voice rehabilitation.

Purpose:

The app registers the maximum expiration and phonation time and the calculation of the phonation quotient (or ratio S/Z) by using the highest of the three values in each.

The ratio S/Z test is a crucial part in every protocol of voice exploration. There might be different professional purposes for taking the test. In addition to the exploration purpose, the ratio S/Z can be used as a re-evaluation in case of being monitoring or before being discharged. In some cases, it can also be prescribed as a training for different objectives (this app can be used both by the speech therapist and by the patient) or as a screening tool to detect voice problems among some collectives such as teachers.

Procedure:

With the aid of the chronometers integrated in the ratio S/Z, the professional registers three samples of the highest time taken in the production of the [s] and other three samples on the highest time production of the [z]. Each chronometer shows the obtained values and highlights the highest one in blue. Automatically, the app uses these values to calculate the S/Z quotient, which appears in green or in red to indicate whether it is pathological or not. The interpretation of results varies according to some parameters (age and gender) is accessible through a specific button.

As the age and sex of the patient can vary the interpretation of the results, a button allows the selection of which kind of patient is undergoing the test. This will give us not only a more accurate result, but it will also evaluate the phonation time length, this is a novelty of this app. 

Characteristics:

-Careful design to enable an easy access and a right understanding of the results.
-Two chronometers with three partial storing boxes each individually resettable.
-Selection of the type of patient according to age and gender.
-Resounding examples of the requested sound.
-Color code to identify the result fields and buttons.
-Start, stop and reset buttons for each chronometer.
-Informative window about the test.
-Help window to ease the interpretation of results, adapted to it.
-Export your results to pdf.
-Languages: Spanish, Catalan, Italian and English. More soon.