February 28, 2023

With the increasing adoption of immersive technologies in the industry, Texas Children’s AR/VR Best Practices Committee was recently formed to bring people from across the organization together to share, learn and advance responsible XR technology practices. The group is comprised of collaborators from Information Services, Nursing, Quality, Child Life, Texas Children’s Innovation Hub, Baylor College of Medicine’s CRIS (Center for Research, Innovation and Scholarship in Medical Education) and more.

What is XR?

Extended Reality (XR) is an umbrella term that covers virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR). XR solutions have the potential to enable a variety of new modalities in health care – ranging from how physicians and other medical professionals are trained, to alleviating the pain and anxiety that patients experience in unfamiliar hospital settings.

Demo Day samples AR/VR technology

The committee hosted its first XR Demo Day last month on The Auxiliary Bridge, welcoming all to stop by to interact with VR headsets and learn how AR works. The event lasted several hours and saw participation from patients, clinicians and non-clinicians alike, many of which had never used AR or VR before.

“The goal of the event was to inspire and help facilitate innovation within the organization,” said Innovation Partner Sahreesh Ismail from the Entrepreneurship & Innovation department. “By bringing in different solutions to sample, we’re hoping to demonstrate just how widespread and transformative XR is going to be across all aspects of health care.”

There were five different solutions on display, including a VR application called MultiBrush used for physical therapy, art therapy and distraction therapy, and a demo of the Cisco Hologram that creates an AR experience to close the gap between virtual and in-person collaboration. Nursing Professional Development also provided demos of the central line dressing and sterile cap change modules they are piloting with the Oculus headset.

Participants had an opportunity to use voice commands using the Meta Quest 2 headset, virtually treating obstetric patients with hemorrhaging, shoulder dystocia, and other obstetric emergencies. They were also able to shoot basketball hoops and create fireworks behind the Statue of Liberty using AR.

“The XR technology being showcased provides a great overview for AR/VR applications in health care. I’m intrigued by these ongoing efforts to promote innovation and delighted to see people get so energized with the potentials of XR applications that optimize care and enhance patient experiences,” said Dr. Satid Thammasitboon. “This was such a great turnout and a big win for research, innovation and scholarship at Texas Children’s.”

The AR/VR Best Practices Committee will continue to forge a pathway for all XR use cases at Texas Children’s by promoting enterprise-wide adoptions and utilization of XR technologies that leapfrog existing methodologies for education, training and other use cases. The team plans to host another Demo Day for West Campus and The Woodlands later this year, and is set participate in the upcoming Professional Day Summit at Duncan NRI on Wednesday, April 19.

If you would like to participate in the committee or have an idea for AR/VR solutions, click here to reach the Entrepreneurship & Innovation team.

March 18, 2019

On March 9, twelve finalist startup companies vied for awards and valuable grant funding at the fifth annual Impact Pediatric Health, a one-of-a-kind pitch competition held at SXSW that showcases the best in pediatric health care innovations. Out of 50 national and international startup applicants, the judges selected four companies to receive $25,000 grants in the Medical Devices category, provided by Southwest National Pediatric Device Consortium (SWPDC).

The four grant recipients were:

  • Bardy Diagnostics (Seattle, Washington): Develops digital health and cardiac monitoring technology
  • Prapela (Boston, Massachusetts): Uses random vibration stimulation to help newborns breathe, relax and sleep
  • PolyVascular (Houston, Texas): Designs and develops polymer-based heart valves for children that accommodate growth and reduce need for repeat surgeries
  • Smileyscope (Cambridge, Massachusetts): Transforms pediatric care delivery using virtual reality

“We were blown away by the level of talent and incredible innovation showcased at this year’s Impact Pediatric Health pitch competition,” said Dr. Chester Koh, Executive Director of SWPDC and pediatric urologist at Texas Children’s Hospital. “At Impact Pediatric Health and SWPDC, we are always looking for the next cutting-edge breakthrough in the world of medical devices, and we are excited to stand beside these four companies, and to help accelerate the next generation of medical device companies impacting our youngest of patients.”

In addition to the Medical Devices category, tech startup applicants also competed in the pediatric Digital Health and Health Disparities and Equity categories. Sound Scouts of Sydney, Australia, won top honors in Digital Health for its work developing app-based hearing assessments for school-aged children. And PolyVascular – co-founded by Dr. Henri Justino, interventional cardiologist and director of the Charles E. Mullins Cardiac Catheterization Laboratories at Texas Children’s Hospital – also received the Health Disparities and Equity award.

Winners across each category and all participants benefited from valuable feedback from a host of industry experts serving as judges at the event, including representatives from the sponsoring children’s hospitals. The panel included:

  • Molly McCarthy MBA, RN-BC, National Director of US Provider Industry and Chief Nursing Officer at Microsoft
  • Bonnie Clipper, VP, Practice and Innovation at the American Nurses Association
  • Peggy Maguire, President of Cambia Health Foundation
  • Andrew El Bardissi, Principal of Deerfield Management
  • Stacy Feld, Vice President, Consumer Venture Investments & External Innovation at Johnson & Johnson.

This year’s event was hosted by emcee, Lisa Suennen, Managing Director of Manatt Health

The Impact Pediatric Health Startup Pitch Competition was created as an opportunity for up-and-coming digital health and medical device startups to pitch their innovations to a panel of children’s hospital executives and investors during SXSW in Austin, Texas. The event is co-sponsored by Texas Children’s Hospital and six other leading U.S. children’s hospitals – Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Boston Children’s Hospital, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Seattle Children’s Hospital and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital of Stanford Children’s Health.

About SWPDC

The Southwest National Pediatric Device Consortium (SWPDC) – anchored at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine – is a multi-institutional consortium that includes clinical, scientific, business, financial, regulatory, reimbursement, engineering, intellectual property and academic partners in the Houston / Southwest U.S. region. The consortium received a five-year, $6.75 million FDA P50 Pediatric Device Consortia (PDC) grant to support innovation, mentoring and collaborations amongst pediatric clinicians and surgeons, engineers, industry, and other partners for pediatric device development.

April 29, 2014

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In the summer of 2012, a then 6-year-old little girl, Mayah Villarreal, began to write with her left hand instead of her right. Her kindergarten teacher mentioned it to Mayah’s mom, Ashley, but told her not to worry as it was common in young children. A few weeks later while taking a bath, Ashley noticed that Mayah began to lean her body to the right and could not sit up straight. Soon she could not lift her right leg on her own to do simple, everyday tasks. Mayah, a formerly active young girl who loves gymnastics, had never shown any signs of a movement disorder and now her life had come to all but a halt, as she was unable to function normally.

Mayah was originally diagnosed in her hometown of Alton with a chiari malformation, and doctors recommended that Mayah undergo a craniotomy surgery, which she had in October 2012. A few days prior to the surgery, Mayah had stopped walking completely and was suffering from debilitating headaches.

After the surgery, there was no improvement in Mayah’s condition. In fact, it continued to worsen and she landed in a local hospital where she was admitted for two days and was told her condition was psychological. One of the doctors on call at the time called Texas Children’s Hospital and after a brief conversation, the Kangaroo Crew team picked Mayah up and flew her to Houston.

Mayah was admitted to the Blue Bird Circle Clinic where they diagnosed her with an extremely rare pediatric movement disorder called dystonia. Dystonia from each individual genetic etiology is rare, and in DYT 1, which is what Mayah has, the disease frequency in Ashkenazi Jews is estimated at 1:3000-1:9000. Among non-Jews, the prevalence is lower.

The team at the Blue Bird Circle Clinic, including Dr. Amber Stocco, former director of the hospital’s movement disorder clinic and Dr. Daniel Curry, director of pediatric surgical epilepsy and functional neurosurgery, developed a course of care that included an aggressive and innovative treatment plan. Stocco recommended deep brain stimulation (DBS) to treat Mayah’s condition. Commonly used for Parkinson’s patients, the use of DBS in pediatric patients is still limited as there are only a few experienced centers worldwide and few patients meet the criteria to qualify for DBS.

“Until recently there have been only case reports of DBS in children,” said Stocco, of this innovative approach. “It is starting to gain acceptance in pediatric centers; however, to date, there are likely less than 300 cases of DBS in children internationally.”

In order to administer DBS to Mayah, Stocco, Curry and the team implanted a small, programmable battery in the upper chest region, near her shoulder. The battery connected to a series of electrodes that targeted specific parts of her brain to block the abnormal brain activity that prevented her from controlling her own muscle movements.

Soon after surgery, Ashley noticed a change in Mayah’s behavior. “Soon after surgery, before the device was even fully programmed to a higher level, we saw Mayah’s condition improving. Every day, we watched Mayah become more and more independent.”

On August 10, 2013, Mayah walked unassisted for the first time since the summer of 2012.

Thanks to Dr. Stocco and Dr. Curry’s innovative approach, Mayah’s case proved to be an extraordinary outcome and story of success. The DBS has returned Mayah’s motor skills to normal and she is happily back enjoying gymnastics. Her implant requires minimal maintenance, needing a charge for just a few minutes every week.

Mayah’s case is amongst the most remarkable of recoveries. Until recently there have only been case reports about using DBS in children and is now starting to gain acceptance among pediatric hospitals, with Texas Children’s at the forefront.