The prevalence of technology in healthcare is rapidly expanding. People of all ages with long-term health conditions (LTCs) increasingly rely on health technology for self-management, with remote clinical support and monitoring becoming the norm, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, more children, young people (CYP) and families rely on health technology to manage their LTCs.

However, a recent scoping review exploring CYP’s needs and concerns about health technology use (1), found that many studies do not involve CYP in health technology design, development, evaluation, and implementation. Studies that involved CYP reported their concerns as: labelling and stigma associated with using technology for LTCs; privacy and reliability; accessibility; and trustworthiness. There is also no conceptual framework that guides the development of health technology for use by CYP.

The aim of this project is to develop a regional consortium focused on improving research involving CYP and health technology within Yorkshire to actively plan future research priorities together.

Objectives:

1. Establish a regional consortium to discuss key issues about how CYP are informed about health technology, including delivery in the context of families;
2. Undertake a scoping review to explore the positive elements of health technology design and implementation for CYP and families;
3. Advance the field by developing recommendations and research objectives for a research proposal to develop a conceptual framework for use when developing health technology for CYP.