TUCSON, Ariz., February 10th, 2021 — The Critical Path Institute (C-Path) in collaboration with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) AdvaMed, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and multiple pediatric health system leaders, proudly hosted the System of Hospitals for Innovation in Pediatrics – Medical Devices (SHIP-MD) Virtual Workshop from February 9-11, 2021. The workshop focused on the acceleration of medical device development for the unique needs of children.
In partnership with the International Children's Advisory Network, Inc. (iCAN), youth members utilizing medical devices were given an opportunity to share their voice to raise awareness to the need to overcome challenges such as pediatric patient access, device innovation, and affordability. KIDS Michigan, 17 year-old, iCAN Youth Member, Olivia Ohmer, offered support through a video discussion in which she talked candidly to the SHIP-MD virtual conference attendees about her experiences in living with Type 1 Diabetes and utilizing insulin pump technology and a continuous glucose monitor from age 3. Reflecting on the need for accessibility for new technology that promotes wellness and healthy patient outcomes, Olivia shared, "Being a kid is the most important job of childhood".
From the SHIP-MD website: The SHIP-MD Pre-Consortium, funded by a cooperative agreement through the FDA, is a collaboration between multiple key stakeholders including academic investigators, pediatric medical society representatives, pediatric patient advocates, the medical device industry, pediatric health system leaders and financing and reimbursement experts. The initiative is aimed at innovating the pediatric medical device ecosystem, streamlining developmental processes and incentivizing investment and innovation in the pediatric medical device market, while improving public health for children.
“We are thrilled to be part of this collaborative effort to aid in the optimization of this ecosystem,” said C-Path President and CEO Joseph Scheeren, Pharm.D. “This workshop will be the culmination of year-long efforts and goal-setting to help foster game-changing innovations in the pediatric and neonatal space.”
Currently, there are challenges to advancing promising new pediatric devices from ideation to clinical studies, to regulatory approval, to use for pediatric patients, including:
The small numbers of children with any one condition, spread far apart across the world, making it difficult to conduct clinical trials;
The need to consider children’s growth and unique disease progression;
The lengthy development timeline and associated high costs;
Perceived lack of return on investment;
Lack of funding for small inventors and companies;
Difficulty in identifying expert resources across the development-to-commercialization continuum.
The live, multi-day SHIP-MD event will offer a valuable forum focused on actionable plans to enhance safe and effective pediatric care options, including:
Day 1: The plenary sessions will provide background and an overview of SHIP-MD, along with an introduction to days 2 and 3 interactive sessions focused on the five key Workstreams: Navigation, Finance, Hospitals, Regulatory and Reimbursement.
Days 2 and 3: In-depth breakout sessions for each Workstream including focused presentations, Q&A and time for community feedback.
Utilizing the latest in virtual event technologies, the SHIP-MD workshop aims to reimagine the live workshop experience and push beyond the limitations of the standard webinar format. With Live Q&A, real time polls and the ability to bring speaker/attendee interaction onto the main stage, this virtual workshop captures the energy and networking opportunities that are usually reserved for in-person events. At the same time, on-demand replay of workshops and materials gives the SHIP-MD virtual workshop a flexibility and reliability that traditionally isn’t available in real-world conference settings.
To learn more about SHIP-MD visit HERE. For information on upcoming speaking opportunities through iCAN or additional ways that youth members can share their voice, visit https://www.icanresearch.org/open-projects and follow the instructions for registering.