8 Exciting Innovations in Pediatric Care
While a global pandemic raged in 2020, new innovations in pediatrics were quietly changing lives at our nation’s Children’s Hospitals. Like all healthcare innovation, the advancement of new techniques and tools seems to happen even ‘before you blink.” From apps to detect anemia in children to innovative new treatments, the healthcare world is constantly working to improve.
In December 2020, Parents Magazine recognized the top 15 Children’s Hospitals in the U.S. and their innovative approaches to pediatric treatment for their small but mighty patients. These facilities lead the pack in new innovations in pediatrics, and in today’s fast paced and ever-changing healthcare the advancement of technology combined with innovation in clinical care can save lives. Let’s look at these and other innovations in the field of pediatric innovation.
2021 Pediatric Innovation to Watch
1. Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta’s Anemia App
There are millions of children with chronic anemia. The condition requires frequent need sticks and blood draws, making for a very uncomfortable experience for any patient, let alone a child. But a former patient of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, along with biomedical engineers, pediatricians, and researchers developed a new smartphone application that today is being marketed under the name AnemoCheck Mobile. The app can potentially avert some blood tests by reading the fingernail color of a patient’s fingernail to provide a hemoglobin reading. While this app won’t replace a doctor’s supervision, it could help with monitoring children taking an iron supplement, for example, to see if it’s having an effect.
2. Texas Children’s in Utero Spinal Bifida Surgery
Spina bifida occurs in 3.4 of every 10,000 live births in the U.S. and is a crippling birth defect where the spine fails to close and is potentially exposed on the child’s back. There is no known cure. Texas Children’s Hospital pioneered the procedure to operate on these tiny patients in the womb back in 2011. While this type of in utero surgery increases the potential for complications, doctors at Texas Children’s have now developed a less invasive “fetoscopic” procedure. In the traditional surgery, the defect in the fetal spine is repaired through the mother’s uterus through a 7 cm incision. The new, less invasive approach reduces risks by making two tiny (4 mm) incisions, a small camera called a fetoscope, and tiny instruments to perform the delicate operation. As of December 2020, the hospital had performed 85 fetoscopic repairs with more positive outcomes for both the mother and her infant.
3. Children’s Wisconsin’s Auricular Neurostimulation
Katja Kovacic, M.D. at Children’s Wisconsin developed a new technology to treat children and teenagers with irritable bowel syndrome. The hospital says, “Auricular neurostimulation is an innovative, non-pharmacological alternative to the many medications that are currently used to treat functional GI disorders in children.” The technology is a small battery unit with four electrodes that attach to the back of the ear with adhesives. There is no discomfort in this non-invasive procedure that delivers 3.2 volts of alternating frequencies to the ear. There are no serious side effects and patients have a 90% satisfaction rate.
4. Seattle Children’s Hospital’s Leukemia Treatment
Pediatricians at Seattle Children’s are successfully using chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy for patients suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia. They are at the forefront of this exciting innovation that is making inroads with patients who don’t respond to traditional cancer treatments. The organization build a 500,000 square foot facility to manufacture the T cells and create a vaccine that increases the effectiveness of the therapy.
5. Children’s Mercy in Kansas and the MUAC Z-Score Tape
Pediatrician Susan Abdel-Rahman, M.D. worked with dietitians at Children’s Mercy in Kansas City Missouri to come up with a faster and easier way to screen children for malnutrition. They invented the MUAC z-score tape, which makes stepping on a weight scale obsolete. The provider simply wraps the measuring tape around a child’s upper arm. Parents Magazine points out, “It’s especially helpful when evaluating kids who feel self-conscious about their weight.”
6. Anytime Pediatrics Telemedicine Technology
Telemedicine, which is the use of video conferencing technology to connect doctors and patients in a virtual clinical encounter, skyrocketed in 2020. On the pediatric innovations front, a firm called Anytime Pediatrics developed a pediatrics-specific telemedicine application that connects parents, patients, and doctors through any digital device. More than 1,300 pediatric practice are using the tool to enhance clinical care while still staying socially distant.
7. Treating Congenital Heart Disease with Renata Medical
More than 40,000 children are born with congenital heart disease in the U.S. each year. But 60% of the devices implanted in these children to repair their conditions are either off-label products or not specifically designed for pediatrics. This forces these young patients to undergo multiple surgeries over time as they grow. Renata Medical successfully created an adjustable stent device that grows with the patient. The device is initially less than 2 mm and can be implanted at birth. It can expand to more than 20 mm in diameter as the patient ages and grows.
8. Pediatric Rehabilitation Technology
Rehabilitating children presents unique challenges to pediatricians and physical therapists. While adults are rehabilitated to return to their previous level of function, children are evolving even as they undertake physical therapy. Engaging the child in PT is also a challenge. But a recent article in Health Management outlines some of the latest innovations in pediatric rehabilitation technology, including:
- EEG monitoring of brain activity during rehabilitation to identify interventions that are most therapeutic with patients who are minimally responsive after brain injury.
- Powered wheelchairs for children as young as two years of age.
- Virtual reality gaming for physiotherapy and occupational therapy sessions.
Pediatric innovation traditionally lagged behind the progress of adult medical devices. Not anymore. These innovations signal the new spirit of progress in pediatrics, which marries technology innovation with the best in clinical care and caring for the nation’s tiniest patients.