Securing a future for responsible neuromodulation in children: The importance of maintaining a broad clinical gaze

This perspective paper provides an overview of several key tensions and challenges within the social context of neuromodulation, and it suggests a means of securing the future of paediatric neuromodulation in light of these.

Tensions and challenges relate to: the considerable clinical and economic need for new therapies to manage neurological diseases; significant commercial involvement in the field; funding pressures; public perceptions (particularly unrealistic expectations); and the emerging Responsible Research and Innovation initiative. This paper argues that managing these challenges and tensions requires that clinicians working within the field adopt what could be called a broad clinical gaze. This paper will define the broad clinical gaze, and it will propose several ways in which a broad clinical gaze can be - and indeed is being - operationalised in recent advances in neuromodulation in children. These include the use of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary clinical team structures, the adoption of clinical assessment tools that capture day-to-day functionality, and the use of patient registries.

By adopting a broad clinical gaze, clinicians and investigators can ensure that the field as a whole can responsibly and ethically deliver on its significant clinical potential.