911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ

±õ³¾±è±ð°ù¾±²¹±ô’sÌýMedTechONE and the Centre for Paediatrics and Child HealthÌýare partnering for the ‘Clinician-scientist-engineer challenges workshop in paediatrics’ on 30th April, 4 – 6 pm, Queens Tower Rooms.

The event follows similar successful events focused on intervention, diagnosis, and treatment and will bring together paediatrics researchers, clinicians, engineers, and experts in a range of disciplines to explore clinically relevant challenges and how 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ’s interdisciplinary expertise can be harnessed to solve them. Solutions might include developing new technology (both software and hardware) or repurposing existing technology (including AI and machine learning).

ÌýThis event is open to 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ academics and clinical academics.

Are you a paediatric clinician or scientist? Do you have a clinical challenge that could be solved with the help of an engineer?
If so, you may want to present your challenge at this event. Please register below to submit your challenges (or solutions), or alternatively you can email the MedTechOne team for more information.

The Clinical Challenges

• Dr Cheryl Battersby – Investigating non-invasive, non-touch monitoring methods for heart rate, ECG, and CO2 for ventilated infant patients. Additionally, how can we improve the affordability of incubators and thermo-environments for pre-term infants?
• Dr Toranj Wadia –ÌýUltrasound is a growing technology we areused in ICU, but hands on acquisition by trained people is still a limiting factor as training takes a long time and some new operators don’t feel confident in acquiring images.
  It would be valuable to have ultrasound pads with technology to locate the heart, lungs, intracranial vessels would enable staff to acquire images which could be reviewed remotely by experienced clinicians.
  Other potential uses would be to enable non-cardiology trained staff to check for pleural/pericardial effusion or look at brain perfusion, in the midst of a cardiopulmonary resuscitation instead of a pulse check, and allow offsite clinicians like cardiologists to advise on management after reviewing images of a child admitted to a non cardiac centre.
• Dr Toranj Wadia – Syringe pumps are used to give infusions of medicines that maintain the patients blood pressure level above a certain level. The medication level has to be titrated depending on the blood pressure target. This is currently done manually by the bedside nurse but a self-weaning syringe pump that could accurately auto-titrate with a blood pressure target input would free up the nurses to do other important things.
• Dr Toranj Wadia – Gas chromatography mass spectrometry is being used to measure and study volatile organic compounds in breath to identify profiles that would point towards an infection. Currently we need to collect the sample and send it to a laboratory for analysis which takes time. It would be useful to have this as a point of care test at the bedside either as part of the ventilator or siphoning from the ventilator circuit to go into the monitor, similar to end tidal co2 monitoring. This could be used to track the resolution of an infection or start of a new one. It could also be used to track improvement in lung inflammation with steroids for example.
• Prof Aubrey Cunnington – We have recently invented a new method to predict the trajectory of acute illness from a single blood sample. It uses a method called RNA velocity, which requires measurement of spliced and unspliced RNA transcripts. Our challenge for the engineers is to develop a rapid point-of-care testing platform to quantify the spliced and unspliced transcripts for a small number of genes in a blood sample, which can be used to predict which unwell children with infections will rapidly deteriorate and which children are not at risk of severe illness.
• Dr Mari Viviers –ÌýAt present image analysis is manual and time intensive. We are interested in using AI tools for vocal fold angle measurements, tracking tongue movements, tracking bolus movement, tracking hyo-laryngeal elevation etc.
  We would welcome working with or at least having an exploratory discussion with a bioengineer if this type of project would be of interest and would fully understand if this is not the right forum, but if not would appreciate a contact name/email of who to reach out to at 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ.
• Praneeth Vedagari – Cancelled investigation slots (e.g. MRIs) or additional requirement of sedation to do a procedure, place a large clinical and cost burden. Additionally, there is a lot of demand for tools which can improve a child’s familiarity with the hospital environment, their condition, or their compliance with medication and procedures.
• Sophie Stockinger –ÌýOur current pressure area assessment workflow in paediatric intensive care is time-consuming and prone to delays. Skin photographs of pressure damage are currently taken using a digital camera and later uploaded to ICCA via cable, which creates workflow friction and can delay documentation at the bedside. These delays can also slow referral to tissue viability, and progression of skin damage may be missed if images are not captured promptly.ÌýThis is also particularly important for admission body mapping, which we are currently documenting by hand on paper. This process is often inaccurate and does not provide a reliable visual record. There are digital wound imaging and scanning systems already on the market that not only photograph skin damage but can also detect early pressure injury and prompt earlier intervention. The unmet need is for a MedTech solution that streamlines bedside skin assessment, direct EPR/ICCA documentation, and clear prompts around repositioning requirements. Potential areas for innovation could include secure mobile imaging, automated upload, decision-support prompts, early pressure-damage detection, or dashboard visibility for the nurse in charge. I feel this would be a valuable opportunity to explore how engineering and digital design could improve pressure injury prevention, team communication, and patient safety in paediatric care

In partnership with the 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College Centre for Paediatrics and Child Health

The 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College Centre for Paediatrics and Child Health (PaeCH) mission is to power research, amplify impact, and enable talent to improve the health and wellbeing of children and young people locally and around the world.

Their vision is to become a nexus for exceptional inter-disciplinary child health research, with a particular focus on common and high-burden diseases.

Core to this ambition is the integration of cutting-edge science, technology, and innovation at 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ, with the clinical expertise in West London Children’s Healthcare. The unique fusion of this expertise enables PaeCH to pioneer new approaches to improving the health and wellbeing of children and young people across the life-course.

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Please note that due to works occurring in the Sherfield Building, entrance to the Queen’s Tower Rooms will be via the courtyard only (next to the entrance to the Abdus Salam Library).