Children’s sponsors medical and health app development workshop
The Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Children’s National (CTSI-CN) recently sponsored a Medical and Health App Development Workshop in collaboration with The George Washington University (GW). Kevin Cleary, Ph.D., technical director of the Bioengineering Initiative at Children’s National Health System, and Sean Cleary, Ph.D., M.P.H., associate professor in epidemiology and biostatistics at GW, created this event to provide an interactive learning experience for those interested in developing medical and health software applications.
Not your average workshop, attendees had the opportunity to network, gain expert knowledge and participate in a group contest for a chance to win up to $10,000 in funding toward prototype development. To kick off events, attendees heard from presenters on the following topics:
- Human factors: Shelly Heller, Ph.D., professor of the computer science department at GW
- User interface prototyping: Tim Wood, Ph.D., assistant professor of the computer science department at GW
- Regulatory environment: Linda Ricci, associate director for digital health within the Office of Device Evaluation, The Food and Drug Administration
Ahead of the workshop, the Children’s National and GW communities submitted ideas for consideration. Judges selected ten ideas for development at the workshop and organized teams of participants around each idea. Teams were judged on their overall presentation, durability of the application, and potential impact in the medical and health world. After careful deliberation, Team 10, also known as “The BabyDaddies,” won for their presentation on BabyData: A medical app for neonatal care providers. The newborn care mobile application aims to calculate the most commonly used values to promote efficient and evidence-based care for newborns in their first hours, days and weeks of life.
“Although some calculations are simple, a lot of time could be saved when you multiply those calculations by seeing 20 to 40 newborns a day,” says Jessica Herstek, M.D., Children’s National project lead and idea originator. “I wanted to create something easy that could help care providers on a day-to-day basis.”
Dr. Herstek is now working with CTSI-CN to bring the application to life. BabyData will feature calculators for measurements, weight assessments, risk evaluations, gestational and chronological age, nutrition, hydration, Group B Streptococcal prophylaxis and glucose infusion rate, all things currently being assessed manually. Medical providers who care for newborns in inpatient, emergency and outpatient settings will have all the resources they need consolidated into one field-specific calculator application.