CHT2022 – Day Two
Thursday 12 May 2022
Today marked the second and final day of CHT2022! Day two of the conference included keynotes on building global partnerships and the role of young people’s advisory groups, seminars on mental health and co-design, oral abstract presentations on the latest research, and a technology demonstration about a secure video messaging system helping to connect people.
Catch up on the day’s events below.
Breakfast Seminar
Day two of the conference began with a fascinating breakfast seminar delivered by Professor Sonja March (University of Southern Queensland, Australia) and Dr Terry Fleming (Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand).
Terry provided a great overview of the different technologies available to support children and young people’s (CYP) mental health and discussed her work developing a digital platform to support the treatment of depression in young people. Sonja shared her work examining the effectiveness of technology to support the delivery of mental health interventions for CYP.
The seminar was followed by an interesting Q&A discussion, with questions about reaching underserved communities, support for CYP’s families, safeguarding, and more!
Keynotes
Day two of the conference programme included four excellent and motivational keynote presentations:
- Dr Pamela Dicks (NHS Scottish Children’s Research Network, Scotland) delivered the first keynote of the day and discussed the importance of involving young people’s advisory groups in medical technology development and associated challenges.
- Richard Hebdon (Innovate UK, England) joined us live to discuss the UK and global perspectives when developing technologies and innovations for child health.
- Dana Le (KidsX, USA) delivered a keynote emphasising the importance of building global partnerships between digital health startups and children’s hospitals.
- Dr Gemma Wheeler (NIHR CYP MedTech, England), Nathaniel Mills (NIHR CYP MedTech, England), Abigail Needham (NIHR Devices for Dignity, England), & Dr Joe Langley (Sheffield Hallam University, England) shared their work with the Starworks Child Prosthetics Research Network. The team highlighted the importance of collaboration and community-building when developing innovative prosthetics with and for CYP.
Seminars
The second day of the conference also included four interactive and engaging seminars, with speakers joining us from Singapore, Spain, and the UK:
- Associate Professor Ng Kee Chong (KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Singapore) joined us to share the work they are doing to create a learning televillage with a data-driven child health ecosystem in Singapore and beyond, including developing chatbots and remote monitoring devices.
- Jacob Branchflower, Mr Iain Hennessey, Professor Don Sharkey, and Jen Preston (NIHR CYP MedTech, England) discussed the ways in which NIHR CYP MedTech seeks to create a child health technology community, with specific examples from paediatric surgery, neonatal care, and involving CYP.
- Begonya Nafria Escalera (Sant Joan de Déu Chidren’s Hospital, Spain) discussed lessons learned and future opportunities for involving CYP in health technology development.
- Ursula Ankeny, Dr Rebecca Partridge, Chris Redford, and Dr Joe Langley (Sheffield Hallam University, England) discussed models of co-design and shared their experiences co-designing child health technology as part of Lab4Living.
Technology Demonstration
Professor Sameer Zuberi (Royal Hospital for Children, Scotland) joined us for the technology demonstration to showcase a secure video messaging system called vCreate.
Sameer shared how vCreate has been developed for CYP with neurological and other conditions, and how vCreate enables patients, families, and clinical teams to connect more easily and quickly.
An interactive Q&A session followed the demonstration and a broad range of topics were discussed, including clinician referrals, adoption into NHS services, funding and commissioning, data security and consent, and more!
Abstract Presentations
We also heard from eight academic teams, who shared their latest research around developing technology for CYP.
Topics included:
- Educational video resources for young people with asthma;
- Continuous glucose monitoring for hypoglycaemia prevention;
- Personalised healthcare monitoring platform for CYP with disabilities;
- Adoption of rehabilitation technologies;
- Co-creating innovative animations;
- A robotic simulator for peristaltic motion;
- A text message-based bedtime routines intervention; and
- Machine learning to predict appointment attendance.
Poster Presentations & Global CHT Centres of Expertise
Throughout the two days of the conference, delegates were able to discover some of the latest research in child health technology by exploring poster abstract presentations from academic teams on the conference portal. Delegates also had the opportunity to learn about and connect with 15 global child health technology centres of expertise.
Thank You
A big thank you to all our sponsors who have made CHT2022 possible!
CHT2022 would also not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the conference organisers – NIHR Children and Young People MedTech Co-operative, Marketing Sheffield, Events Management Direct, and TechNative.
Finally, thank you to all our delegates and speakers for joining us at CHT2022 – your participation and involvement has made this conference a great success. We hope you will keep connecting with us over the coming months and years to continue building a global child health technology community.
We look forward to seeing you at the next Child Health Technology conference!
