Welcome to the TOR-BSST© Website,

The TOR-BSST© was developed through research funded by the Canadian Stroke Network.  There were several acute and rehabilitation hospitals that participated in this research over the course of 5 years (2001-2006).  We are happy to say that the psychometric data has been collected and analyzed for all 310 patients in this research.  The full psychometric properties have been published in the March 2009 issue of Stroke. Click here for the PDF of the full article.

The Canadian Stroke Network is now helping us to launch the TOR-BSST© tool for clinical use.   They have helped us prepare the teaching modules that come with the TOR-BSST©.  Our research has shown that health professionals who are trained with these teaching modules will be reliable and accurate administrators of the TOR-BSST©. Click here for more details about the TOR-BSST©.

In order to ensure proper identification of increased dysphagia risk in stroke patients, we require all health professionals who plan to screen for dysphagia using the TOR-BSST© to be trained by a Speech-Language Pathology dysphagia expert using these tested training modules.

If you are a Speech-Language Pathology dysphagia expert and would like to offer the TOR-BSST© to health professionals at your facility please register with us.  We require that you participate in a 4-hour workshop on how to administer the TOR-BSST© training.  This workshop will also cover details on how to implement the dysphagia screening program within your facility.  We will offer these workshops twice a month via web-conference. For those who are located within the Greater Toronto Area, we will also offer live training workshops.  Please register for more information. 

If you are a health professional who would like to be trained on how to screen for dysphagia using the TOR-BSST©, please register with us.  We will work with you to get the program established at your facility.

If you are a dysphagia expert but not a Speech-Language Pathologist and would like to offer the TOR-BSST© to health professionals at your facility, please register with us. We would like to work with you on how to establish the TOR-BSST© within your facility. 

If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact Trixie Reichardt, our Swallowing Lab Coordinator, at trixie.reichardt@uhnresearch.ca.  We will do our best to answer all enquiries within 7 days.

Thank you for your interest in our work.

Sincerely and with kindest regards,

Rosemary Martino, MA, MSc, PhD