(Rockville, MD – April 11, 2008)  The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association held its annual Health Care Conference/Business Institute in St. Louis, MO on April 5-6, 2008. Attended by more than 500 speech-language pathologists, the conference offered a unique combination of clinical and business topics for speech-language pathologists in health care and private practice settings.

Dr. Susan Miller, founder of Voicetrainer LLC, a voice and communication consulting firm, and author of Be Heard the First Time: The Woman’s Guide to Powerful Speaking, gave the plenary address. She demonstrated how voice, posture, and non-verbal communication lead to positive or negative first impressions.

Other clinical topics included autism, traumatic brain injury, and swallowing and feeding disorders in children and adults. The Business Institute addressed issues such as business plans, marketing, contracting, and negotiating with private health plans.

“With the annual Health Care Conference/Business Institute, ASHA has the unique opportunity to offer an education platform to provide those members who work in health care and private practice settings with the skills they need to be successful in both running their practice and proving clinical services,” stated ASHA President Catherine Gottfred.

Next year’s ASHA Health Care Conference/Business Institute will be held April 4-5 at the Bethesda Conference Center in the Washington D.C. area.

ASHA is the national professional, scientific, and credentialing association for more than 130,000 audiologists, speech-language pathologists, and speech, language, and hearing scientists. Audiologists specialize in preventing and assessing hearing and dizziness disorders as well as providing audiologic treatment including hearing aids. Speech-language pathologists identify, assess, and treat speech and language problems including swallowing disorders.