SLT Clinical Training Manual

1. Overview & Purpose

Flowen is a real-time acoustic biofeedback platform for fluency practice. The SLT portal gives you a clinical view across all your enrolled patients — session attendance, acoustic telemetry, exercise completion rates, and progression milestones — without requiring you to sit in every session.

This manual covers your obligations and capabilities as the responsible clinician on the Flowen system. Read it in full before enrolling your first patient. If anything is unclear, contact clinical@flowen.digital before proceeding.

2. Accessing the SLT Portal

Your Flowen account is linked to your professional email address. You will receive an invitation email when your organisation has been onboarded. Click the link in the email, set a password, and complete your profile.

3. Enrolling a Patient

Eligibility criteria

Before enrolling a patient, confirm they meet all of the following criteria:

• Diagnosed with developmental stuttering, cluttering, or neurogenic dysfluency by an HCPC-registered SLT
• Age 8 or above (parental consent required for under-18s)
• Sufficient hearing to use audio biofeedback without amplification assistance
• Access to a compatible iOS or Android device (iOS 15 / Android 11 or later)
• Basic digital literacy or a carer who can assist with app navigation
• No active psychotic episode, acute agitation, or other contraindication to independent home practice

If a patient is borderline on any criterion, document your clinical reasoning before proceeding and flag it in the patient's Flowen profile notes field.

Informed consent

Flowen's in-app consent flow covers data processing under UK GDPR. However, you are responsible for ensuring therapeutic consent is properly documented in your clinical records, separate from the Flowen system. The minimum consent discussion must cover:

• What data the app collects (acoustic features, session timing, exercise completion — not raw audio)
• Who can see their data (the patient, you as the responsible SLT, and authorised Flowen staff)
• The voluntary nature of participation and the right to withdraw at any time
• That Flowen is a supplement to, not a replacement for, clinical therapy sessions

Creating the patient profile

Navigate to Patients → Add Patient. Complete all required fields:

After saving, the patient receives an app invitation email. They must install the Flowen app and complete onboarding before telemetry begins appearing in your portal.

4. Managing Exercise Programmes

Each patient is assigned one active programme at a time. A programme is a sequenced set of exercises drawn from Flowen's library of 10 core techniques (prolonged speech, easy onset, light articulatory contact, pull-out, cancellation, and five supporting exercises). You can use a preset template or build a custom programme.

Building a custom programme

• Navigate to Programmes → New Programme
• Name the programme and set a target duration (recommended 4–8 weeks per stage)
• Add exercises in order — the app presents them sequentially within each session
• Set difficulty parameters for each exercise (speaking rate target, prolongation duration, disfluency threshold)
• Set advancement criteria: a patient must meet a defined accuracy threshold over N consecutive sessions before the system prompts you to advance them

5. Reading Session Telemetry

After each practice session, Flowen uploads acoustic telemetry to the portal. No raw audio is stored — only computed features:

Telemetry is shown on the Patient Detail screen as a 30-session rolling chart. Use the date range filter to view specific periods.

6. Progress Reports & Discharge

Generate a PDF progress report at any time from Patient Detail → Reports → Generate Report. Reports include:

• Summary statistics over the selected date range
• Session attendance chart
• Technique accuracy trends for each active exercise
• Your clinical notes (optional — toggle before generating)

Reports are formatted for inclusion in clinical case notes. They include a Flowen version stamp and a notice that data is acoustic telemetry only, not a formal fluency assessment.

Discharging a patient

When a patient completes their programme or is discharged from your caseload, navigate to Patient Detail → Actions → Archive Patient. This:

• Removes the patient from your active caseload view
• Sends the patient an in-app notification that their programme has ended
• Retains all telemetry in a read-only archived state for 7 years per NHS records retention guidance
• Does not delete any data from the patient's app until they request deletion under UK GDPR Article 17

7. Clinical Safety Flags

Flowen's safety monitoring system watches for patterns that may warrant clinical review. Flags appear in your portal inbox and as email notifications (if enabled in your profile settings).

8. Data Handling & GDPR

Flowen processes patient data as a Data Processor on behalf of your organisation (the Data Controller) under UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. The legal basis for processing is Article 9(2)(h) — health care purposes.

• All data is stored within the UK and European Economic Area (EEA)
• Data in transit and at rest is encrypted (TLS 1.3 and AES-256)
• Flowen does not sell patient data or use it for any purpose other than providing the platform service
• Patients can request export or deletion of their data at any time via the app or by emailing clinical@flowen.digital
• A Data Processing Agreement (DPA) governs the relationship between Flowen and your organisation

You are responsible for recording Flowen as a data processor in your organisation's Record of Processing Activities (ROPA). Your DPO can obtain a copy of the Flowen DPA and DPIA on request.

9. Escalation & Support