Stamatela Matina Balou MD

Stamatela has clinically trained Speech Language Pathologist and her clinical and research work focuses on understanding, preventing and treating swallowing disorders, known as dysphagia. She uses clinical research methods to improve swallowing ability and quality of life for patients whose swallow function has been changed due to medical conditions such as stroke, pulmonary disease, head and neck cancer and spinal cord injury.

Her the current research goal is to develop treatment paradigms to improve upper airway dysfunction and swallow efficiency in patients with head and neck cancer and patients with spinal cord injury. Her the research uses high-resolution manometry and videofluoroscopy to understand the pressure foundations of swallowing components in the normal population and the head & neck cancer patients treated with chemoradiation.