Child health technology: shaping the future of paediatrics and child health and improving NHS productivity

Abstract

In the last decade, technology has revolutionised the way we deliver healthcare. Smartphones, tablets, personal computers and bespoke devices have provided patients with the means to access health information, manage their healthcare and communicate with health professionals remotely. Advances in technology have the potential to change how acute and long-term conditions are diagnosed and managed and how illness is prevented using technological advances in artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, robotics, 3D printing, new materials, biosensor technologies and data analytics. In the future, predictive analytics will help with earlier disease diagnosis in at-risk populations.Historically, development of child health innovation and technology has taken place in a relatively emergent manner with little formal coordination. The aim is to move away from the traditional approach of repurposing adult technologies to provide a large-scale and coordinated approach for the development of bespoke health technology for children that is anatomically, physiologically and developmentally appropriate, versatile and that has been designed with children and young people. The challenge for the National Health Service alongside healthcare systems across the world is to deliver increasingly complex healthcare at lower cost and with better quality of life and greater efficiency.