The hospital is leading a digital health accelerator that will link more than 30 hospitals across the U.S., U.K. and Australia with technology companies focused on increasing digital innovations for pediatric patients.

Payers including Anthem, UnitedHealthcare and Blue Shield of California also are participating in the KidsX Accelerator program to work alongside hospitals and digital health companies to launch demonstration projects.

“Pediatrics has just as many needs and problems to be solved as their counterparts and colleagues at health systems focused on adults. The amount of digital health solutions catered to solving the needs of pediatric populations are much smaller. There just aren’t very many,” Omkar Kulkarni, chief innovation officer at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and managing director of the KidsX Accelerator, told Fierce Healthcare.

“We thought the best way to spur innovation was to build a program that specifically focuses on pairing hospitals with promising technologies companies,” Kulkarni said.

The goal is to help digital health startups successfully pilot and deploy digital health solutions for pediatric patients and then grow and scale those products across pediatric healthcare, he said.

Pulling together a consortium of hospitals provides size and scale to launch demonstration projects and is a more appealing opportunity to a digital health startup, Kulkarni said.

The startups aren’t just working with one hospital, but they will have the attention of multiple hospitals,” he said. “We felt there needed to be a platform that made it easier for those innovations to take place and to grow.”

The program will use a reverse pitch model, which allows the participating hospitals to pitch their problems or challenges to the startup community and then work with the companies that have tech solutions to meet their needs.

The participating hospitals developed a wish list of eight focus areas including improved remote monitoring, developing virtual rehab for kids using gamification, better pediatric mental wellness using mobile apps and creating predictive analytics for health outcomes.

During this 13-week program, entrepreneurs will work closely and collaboratively with digital health leaders at children’s hospitals to determine how their product best delivers value in the pediatric market. The program will begin in early 2021 and be completely virtual.

Applications for the program will be accepted through Oct. 7.

The companies selected for the program will be mentored by the hospitals on how to prepare for the pediatric market and will be given a place to test the innovation.

There are a few pediatric startups making inroads in the market. Hazel Health operates virtual care clinics inside the school nurse’s office to connect students to a physician via telehealth and recently landed a $33 million funding round. Sprout, a tech-enabled autism care and treatment program, launched in July on the back of $10 million in seed funding.

Emilio Health developed a technology-enabled behavioral health home for children and their families and raised $5 million in seed funding from Oak HC/FT in late 2019.

But pediatric care is a challenging space for digital health startups and investors as it has a smaller market size. Developers also have to design products and devices on the unique needs of pediatric patients and their families.

“In the pediatric market, the population is not uniform. You have newborns, neonatals, and young children, children, adolescents and young adults. Designing a digital solution for a 5-year is different than one for a 15-year-old. From a technology development perspective, it takes additional thought, research and consideration,” he said.

The surge in virtual care during the COVID-19 pandemic has boosted interest in digital health tools for children, especially using remote monitoring devices and virtual specialty care to help track children’s chronic conditions at home.

But historically, there hasn’t been a focus on children. “There are not a lot of remote monitoring kits designed around the physiology of children. For example, kids have small wrists and you need various sizes. Remote monitoring tools work for a 45-year-old, but it is not plug-and-play into the world of a kid,” Kulkarni said.

Pediatric hospitals hope to capitalize on the growing interest in digital health to spark innovation for children’s healthcare. “We’re starting to ask questions: How do we take care of families where they are at home using resources like artificial intelligence, algorithms, automation and digital assistant bots to make the experience convenient to families and efficient for health systems and pediatric providers?” Kulkarni said.

Private provider of remote GP services in the UK and Republic of Ireland, Medical Solutions, has enhanced its partnership with Alliance Health Group (AHG) with the roll-out of ‘GP24’, a 24/7 virtual GP service.

Medical Solutions has worked with AHG, since 2014, providing its GP service to employees within its client base who are part of a private healthcare plan managed by AHG.

WHY IT MATTERS

GP24 is now available to 48,000 UK-based employees of Mitie, a UK-based facilities management and professional services company.

This comes after the launch of GP24 to 4,800 staff at Anglian Water Group, which supplies water and water recycling services to customers in the east of England and Hartlepool.

This service will provide employees with access to a GP by phone for diagnosis, advice, private prescriptions and referral letters via an app, 24/7, seven days a week. Online video-consultations with a GP are available between 8am and 10pm, seven days a week.

THE LARGER TREND

Earlier this month, Medical Solutions partnered with Cirencester Friendly to launch GP24 for the society’s income protection members. Amongst the many competitors launching virtual GP services during the pandemic is London-based virtual care provider, Medefer, which landed £10m in a funding round to develop its tech platform for doctors to conduct virtual visits.

ON THE RECORD

Paul Nattrass, commercial director at Medical Solutions, said: “During these challenging times, this will give those employees the reassurance that they can access expert medical advice and support anytime, anywhere. For employers, enabling staff to have prompt access to expert medical advice helps to keep them healthy, engaged and productive at work.”

Neil Howlett, CEO at Alliance Health Group, added: “At AHG we aim to provide our clients with flexible and bespoke private healthcare solutions that focus on employee needs and client value. We believe that fast and efficient access to the right medical support is key to attaining the best clinical outcomes for our patients. Our partnership with Medical Solutions provides us with an even broader portfolio of services targeted at helping patients access care in their time of need.”

Medical device creator Masimo announced its latest 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the Rad-G pulse oximeter. The Rad-G is a handheld device that combines Masimo’s signal extraction technology (SET) pulse oximetry and respiration rate from the pleth (RRp) that can be used to spot-check or continually monitor.

It’s lightweight, handheld, and has a 24-hour battery life between charges and a rubber exterior. Masimo markets the Rad-G for a variety of clinical settings, including physicians’ offices, long-term care facilities, wellness clinics, first-response scenarios and limited-resource environments.

Alongside the launch of the Rad-G device is the Rad-G sensor, which is intended to be used for both adult and pediatric patients. The new device is also compatible with the rest of Masimo’s product portfolio.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Studies show that expanding the vital measurements that hospital staff take can lead to early identification of a deteriorating patient. It can in turn reduce the need for higher-acuity care, hospital lengths of stay, and admission costs and can even at times improve survival rates.

Oftentimes, hospitals only use measurements like blood pressure and temperature to monitor a patient’s condition. Monitoring respiratory function and pulse oximetry can lead to early detection of patient deterioration, according to a report in the European Journal of Anaesthesiology.

The Rad-G measures a range of vitals, including oxygen saturation, pulse rate, perfusion index, pleth variability index and RRp. Measuring respiratory function is particularly important when treating patients with respiratory-related illnesses like pneumonia and COVID-19.

THE LARGER TREND

Masimo has had a busy summer in terms of product launches. Back in June, it released the Bridge, a wearable, single-patient-use percutaneous neurostimulator designed to be worn behind the ear to help with opioid withdrawal symptoms. Then in August, Masimo landed FDA clearance for its O3 Regional Oximeter, which monitors somatic tissue oxygenation saturation and can detect changes in a patient’s hemoglobin, oxyhemoglobin and deoxyhemoglobin.

The company also entered into a partnership with the NBA this summer to supply players, coaches and staff with the MightySat fingertip pulse oximeter. The partnership is part of the league’s health and safety protocols that require all league members to measure their oxygen saturation, pulse and respiration rate on a daily basis.

Also in the connected medical device space is Capsule Technologies, which received FDA 510(k) clearance for its Vitals Plus capnography-monitoring technology.

ON THE RECORD

“With the Rad-G Pulse Oximeter, we set out to create an accessible, high-quality care solution that clinicians can rely on in a multitude of care settings,” said Joe Kiani, the founder and CEO of Masimo, in a statement.

“We are bringing our expertise in pulse oximetry to a smaller, more lightweight, rugged, and versatile handheld device – without sacrificing any of the advantages that help provide clinicians with critical insights into patient status. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, it’s more imperative than ever that caregivers have access to the most accurate and reliable pulse oximetry-monitoring technologies. We are proud to offer Rad-G among our suite of solutions powered by the breakthrough technology, SET pulse oximetry.”

NYU Langone’s multidisciplinary transgender program takes a personalized approach to care of patients with gender dysphoria, centered on the individual patient’s objectives, life circumstances, and comorbidities. Highly trained faculty tailor gender-affirming procedures to meet the individual goals and expectations of each person.

Robotic surgery eases some of the technical challenges of gender-affirming surgery, allowing surgeons greater visibility and reach within the confines of the pelvic cavity. NYU Langone is one of few surgery programs in the country that uses a robotic platform for complex procedures such as vaginoplasty, or reconstruction of the vagina, in eligible transgender women.

Many transgender women are interested in vaginoplasty, and demand has risen in recent years, according to an article led by Rachel Bluebond-Langner, MD, the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Associate Professor of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery in the Hansjörg Wyss Department of Plastic Surgery, and Lee C. Zhao, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Urology, published online July 2, 2020, in European Urology. Currently, the most commonly used procedure is penile inversion vaginoplasty, which encompasses neovaginal cavity creation, clitoroplasty, labiaplasty, corpora cavernosa reduction, orchiectomy, and urethroplasty.

However, advanced robotic platforms offer the potential to create full vaginal depth in shorter operating times while minimizing complications. Since 2017, NYU Langone surgeons have performed hundreds of robotic-assisted peritoneal flap gender-affirming vaginoplasties and recently adapted their technique for a state-of-the-art single-port system introduced in 2018.
Single-Port Platform Shortens Operating Time

Robotic surgery is a viable alternative to penile inversion in most vaginoplasty candidates, according to the study, and is especially advantageous for patients with limited genital skin. The robotic platform allows surgeons to create a well-vascularized neovaginal apex or vault.

Compared with the original multi-arm robot system, single port offers several other potential advantages, including shorter operating time, the authors say. In addition, surgeons report having better visualization using the newer platform and more room to operate as a team in a narrow space compared with using a multi-arm system, where the lateral arms tend to clash with the walls of the canal as dissection progresses.

Dr. Zhao and colleagues describe the single-port technique in detail and compare patient outcomes for single versus multi-arm procedures. Surgery time was shorter with single port (3.7 versus 4.2 hours) while both systems produced comparable vaginal depth (14.1 cm single port; 13.6 cm multi-arm) and width (3.7 cm), based on a retrospective review of 145 patients.

Surgeons reported that the single-port platform offered more freedom of movement during deep dissection and intracorporeal suturing, the authors say. In addition, an articulating camera provided better visualization for canal dissection.

“Despite the surgical learning curve one might expect with using a new system, we saw significantly shorter operating times with the single port,” says Dr. Zhao. “That’s important because we know that longer operating time is a risk factor for positioning-related complications, such as neuropathy, which did not occur in the cohort we studied.”
More Long-Term Data Needed

The current study is the longest published follow-up of patients who have received robotic-assisted peritoneal flap gender-affirming vaginoplasty, the authors note. They stress that more research is needed on this relatively new procedure to assess longer-term outcomes, such as stabilization of vaginal depth over time.

“Ultimately, more data are needed to establish the complication rates and durability of this procedure,” says Dr. Zhao. “However, this study establishes the single-port robotic system as a safe alternative to traditional penile inversion that allows for shorter operative time and excellent outcomes even in patients with limited genital tissue.”

Nuffield Health Cambridge Hospital was delighted to welcome the da Vinci robot from Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to support the treatment of NHS urology patients in Cambridgeshire and beyond.

“Being able to undertake robotic prostate surgery at the Nuffield on a temporary basis allows us to ensure rapid treatment of patients with prostate cancer, including any patients who had delayed surgery due to the impact of Covid,” said Claire Holmes, Macmillan Operations Manager for Cancer, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. “Establishing this new service quickly has been an exciting project to work on and shows how two organisations can work quickly to benefit patient care.”

The da Vinci surgical system enables surgeons to perform delicate and complex operations through a few small incisions with robotic assisted surgery, allowing greater precision and minimal discomfort. CUH has been providing this service at Addenbrooke’s Hospital for more than 15 years.

CUH Consultant Urologist, Mr Nimish Shah, commented: “It is wonderful to have the additional da Vinci robotic system installed so quickly at Nuffield Hospital Cambridge. It enables us to undertake prostatectomy surgery for men whose treatment was delayed due to Covid-19.” The Nuffield Health Cambridge Hospital team has been very professional and efficient, enabling us to deliver surgery very safely.