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Developing a paediatric healthcare research network: key learnings from the 'starworks' child prosthetics project
Abigail Needham1, Gemma Wheeler2, Nathaniel Mills1
1NIHR Devices for Dignity MedTech Co-operative, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Insights
The Starworks Network addresses challenges in pediatric prosthetics by involving children and families in research. This approach ensures child-specific needs are met, fostering innovation in pediatric medical technology.
Area of Science:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Pediatric Technology
- Rehabilitation Science
Background:
- Child prosthetics innovation faces barriers due to small patient populations, often leading to adapted adult designs with suboptimal outcomes.
- Existing pediatric prosthetic technology frequently involves downsizing adult devices, failing to meet the unique developmental and functional needs of children.
- There is a critical need for research and innovation tailored specifically to the pediatric population in prosthetic development.
Purpose of the Study:
- To share key learnings from the establishment and development of the Starworks Child Prosthetics Research Network.
- To outline strategies for addressing child-specific issues in prosthetic technology development.
- To demonstrate a model for building sustainable research networks and fostering impactful innovation in pediatric medical technology.
Main Methods:
- Established the Starworks Child Prosthetics Research Network, uniting children, families, clinicians, academics, and researchers.
- Focused on co-design principles, ensuring children and families have an equal voice in research agenda setting.
- Implemented a collaborative approach to identify and address challenges in pediatric prosthetic research and development.
Main Results:
- Successfully created a collaborative network focused on child-specific prosthetic needs.
- Developed a framework for involving end-users (children and families) in the innovation process.
- Identified key strategies for building sustainable research infrastructure in pediatric medical technology.
Conclusions:
- The Starworks Network model demonstrates a viable approach to overcoming barriers in pediatric medical technology innovation.
- Centering research on the needs of children and families is crucial for driving impactful advancements in prosthetics.
- Learnings from Starworks can be adapted to foster innovation across the broader field of pediatric medical technology.
Abstract:
The context of child prosthetics is a complex and important area for research and innovation. Yet, like many areas of paediatric medical technology development, there are several barriers to innovating specifically for the unique needs of children (i.e., a relatively small patient population or 'market'). As such, much child prosthetics technology is developed from the downsizing of adult prosthetics, leading to suboptimal outcomes for children and young people. Since 2016, the Starworks Child Prosthetics Research Network has been exploring this space, bringing children and their families together with key opinion leaders from the NHS, clinical Academia and leading National Research Centres with capabilities in child prosthetics with the aim of increasing research across the system. Above all else, Starworks is centred on the needs of children and their families, ensuring they have an equal voice in driving the ongoing research agenda. This article will share key learnings from the creation and development of the Starworks Network that may be applicable and/or adaptable across a wider paediatric medical technology research and innovation landscape. In particular it will discuss how it addressed three key aims of; (1) Addressing child-specific issues; (2) Building a sustainable network; and (3) Fostering impactful innovation.
