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Dysphagia affects about one in twenty people and can lead to lung infections, malnourishment and death.

The Adelaide Women’s and Children’s Hospital asked CSIRO to develop a small catheter-based sensor that works as well as current devices, but which is cheap enough to be single use, quick to set up and easily operated.

Combining expertise in optic fibres and microjointing, CSIRO’s device is barely three millimetres in diameter and uses some clever physics and modern telecommunications technology to rapidly measure the waves of pressure when someone swallows.

Because this device uses light, many sensors can be strung along the catheter without increasing its outer diameter. More sensors mean doctors can more accurately identify the problem.

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