Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta depends on all types of technology to diagnose, treat and care for patients, and collaborating with Georgia Tech engineers is crucial to continue to improve technologies and devices in order to provide the best care. The need for innovation is great, and the solution lies with the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Pediatric Technology Center at Georgia Tech (PTC). New technologies and devices will create integrated systems of care that guide patients through health services.
As healthcare technology advances and developments in these devices dramatically improve health outcomes, safety and quality, there is an increasing gap between new technology applied in adult medicine and in pediatric healthcare due to the focus on adult patients.
We will strive to achieve similarly promising improvements in health outcomes for children focusing on these key areas:
- Dedicated innovation working group: Establishing a dedicated clinical and technology working group will help to identify, develop and implement innovative This group will include clinical providers, engineers and scientists who will work together to develop, review and choose promising ideas to advance pediatric healthcare through new technologies and devices. The group will identify the priority pediatric diseases in greatest need of technological innovation; review new technologies that could be applied to healthcare; and explore the emerging field of omics technology to address pediatric disease.
- Formal proposals process: Instituting a formal call for proposals process will help the PTC select, support, oversee and provide expertise to This process will evaluate the intellectual property landscape, development costs, timeline and clinical impact to assess project proposals.
- Product commercialization: Engaging industry experts will help to inform recommendations on commercialization of products. Leading experts in the field, serving as an external advisory board (EAB), will review this pillar’s current assets to make thoughtful recommendations for future projects, activities and resources for commercialization.
- Launching successful products: Scaling successful strategies across Children’s and beyond will be possible through academic and industry collaborations. The EAB will identify steps for getting new technologies to market while working with investigators to verify necessary oversight and focus on the regulatory, quality and business components of device and technology development.
New technologies and devices will create systems of care that guide patients through health services spanning all levels of intensity of care.
Projects included in this pillar have the potential to impact neurosurgery, robotics, sensor technology, cardiology and cardiac surgery, orthopedics, ultrasound technologies, home monitoring, wearables, 3D printing of medical devices and implants, patient safety devices and more. This pillar will most benefit the priority clinical areas of neonatal care, cardiology, critical care, emergency medicine, infectious disease, omics research and development, orthopedics, pediatric surgery, pulmonary disease and rehabilitation.
The PTC is poised to use its specialized knowledge and skill, structure and resources to drive pediatric technology and device innovation that will help make meaningful change in the quality of care we are able to provide to sick children and their families.
We will strive to gain new knowledge in the care of children and develop and apply novel lifesaving or life-enhancing technologies. New treatments, devices and diagnostic tools will go through testing, and, if successful, FDA approval and into clinical use. Ultimately, the research and innovation performed within this pillar will help patients at Children’s and beyond as leading-edge technologies and devices become accessible to pediatric care facilities at a national level.
Donor support of the development and application of these new technologies will help provide the resources necessary to help make children better today and healthier tomorrow.
