NIHR CYP MedTech collaborated with a company called Tookie Ltd and the gastroenterology team at Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust to organise clinical focus groups in early 2020 to consider these unmet needs. The groups discussed the design of a wearable medical device to be offered to patients to improve wellbeing and safety. During the focus groups, one family stated that the proposed garments would not suit their son’s highly complex needs.

Tookie committed to producing a bespoke garment for the family. Pioneering 3D body mapping technology was used to map the lines and devices on the patient’s torso, negating any undue emotional stress that the patient would have experienced by encroaching upon his personal space to take repeated physical measurements. These measurements were combined with photo images of the patient to provide accurate marker points during the garment design process. Several design features were developed with maximum input from the family (e.g., embedding neoprene into garment sections to prevent pulling of lines and devices), before a prototype was provided and trialled and a finished garment provided.

The garment has received great praise and feedback from the family, indicating that it is functionally sound, fulfilling their needs, and improving the patient’s quality of life, with only minor aesthetic adjustments required (to be better fitting and easier to adjust).