Helping vulnerable kids thrive
Brain computer interface technology being developed by researchers at the University of Calgary aims to help children with movement and communication difficulties participate in some of the activities enjoyed by kids everywhere, like managing their own lemonade stand. supplied
Two world-leading programs spearheaded by researchers at the University of Calgary’s Cumming School of Medicine (CSM) are poised to make a significant difference in key areas of pediatric care: pain management, and improved participation in simple, everyday tasks by children with severely restricted mobility who are unable to communicate through speech.
Earlier this year, Solutions for Kids in Pain (SKIP) and the Health Standards Organization unveiled Canada’s – and the world’s – first Pediatric Pain Management Standard, providing guidance to health organizations on how to deliver equitable and quality pain management across hospital settings.
These projects are part of a growing movement to expand child health and wellness research through the University of Calgary’s One Child Every Child initiative. Thanks to 132 partners across 25 countries, researchers are looking at ways to ensure children have better beginnings, to expand precision health and wellness treatments for those with complex medical conditions, and to ensure that all children are able to go from vulnerable to thriving.
Unmet medical needs in youth can have lifelong consequences.
“Most pain care for children in Canada is woefully out of date. Implementing this new health standard can ensure that every child seen in hospital receives effective and personalized pain care, based on current evidence-informed solutions. ”
Children who have chronic pain are more likely to experience mental illness, substance use and socioeconomic disparities into adulthood. Access to effective pain management is a fundamental human right and a crucial aspect of care delivery but is often overlooked, says Dr. Katie Birnie, PhD, SKIP’s associate scientific director and an assistant professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine and community health sciences at CSM. One in five children will experience chronic pain before adulthood.
“Most pain care for children in Canada is woefully out of date,” says Dr. Birnie. “Implementing this new health standard can ensure that every child seen in hospital receives effective and personalized pain care, based on current evidence-informed solutions.”
Meanwhile, another UCalgary professor is leading the development of one of the world’s first pediatric brain-computer interfaces (BCI) to help children use their thoughts to activate electronic devices and communicate.
“Children living with conditions such as cerebral palsy can suffer from severe limitations in their mobility and capacity to communicate – fully aware and capable, but unable to walk, talk or use their hands. These children are trapped in their bodies,” says Dr. Adam Kirton, MD, a professor of pediatrics and clinical neurosciences at CSM and an attending pediatric neurologist at Alberta Children’s Hospital.
BCI technology recognizes changes in thought patterns via a non-invasive electroencephalogram and transmits those signals to control devices such as computers, phones, music players, wheelchairs and more. While wearing a BCI headset, a child can think the command “go,” for example, to move a remote-controlled car forward, says Dr. Kirton.
The Pain Management Standard outlines 34 specific recommendations on how to deliver equitable, evidence-informed and person-centred pain care and supports, says Dr. Birnie.
“It should be on par with the other serious patient safety issues we talk about such as a hospital-acquired infection,” she says. “Preventable and poorly managed pain is serious and should be treated as such.”
SKIP and BCI are just two examples of the leading-edge medical innovation being supported by Cumming School researchers at the University of Calgary.
Dr. Kirton says that while the BCI technology is still in its early stage, it has been implemented on a limited scale, and he is “realistically optimistic” that it could become more widely available as development progresses based on user feedback.
“Once you train the computer – and it can be done pretty quickly, sometimes in a matter of minutes – the computer can then watch your brain waves,” he says. “It can’t read your mind, but it can detect intentional changes in the pattern of your brainwaves. Once it detects those, it can control a device based on what your brainwaves are intentionally doing.”
The technology is new, and the applications so far are basic, but it can, for example, allow users to activate a switch to turn something on or off, or even control motion in a video game.
“We have a few young kids who love video games but they’ve never been able to play,” says Dr. Kirton. “But with the BCI, they can use their own brains to activate the action of a character, and we have quite a few video games now that have been custom-designed for this. They can interact and play the video game by thinking of doing a movement, such as [having a character jump] and have the game react as though they were doing it on their own, which they could never do before.”
Dr. Birnie says poorly managed pain from medical procedures early in life – such as for babies in neonatal intensive care unit or children who are hospitalized – can lead to changes in how the brain perceives pain and how sensitive it is to pain later in life.
“Chronic pain that last months to years can impact emotional well-being, leading to increased rates of mental-health concerns such as anxiety and depression, impacting friendships and how well families function, how kids do at school, and their physical functioning and activities,” she says. “It impacts them not only when they’re adolescents but also as they reach adulthood.”
Technology and patient-focused medical discoveries are why UCalgary is sparking meaningful change in the lives of children. With its focus on precision medicine and precision public health, its high impact research and its commitment to students, the Cumming School of Medicine has become one of Canada’s most innovative medical faculties.
Breakthroughs made at UCalgary go further thanks to the unwavering support from the community. The medical school takes its name from Calgary business leader Geoffrey Cumming, whose $100-million donation is the largest single philanthropic gift in the university’s history.
Four decades of support from the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation – as well as unique partnerships between the foundation, Alberta Health Services and UCalgary to create the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute – has accelerated the pace of innovation in child health research.
By building research capacity and advancing medical knowledge at the University of Calgary, through initiatives like One Child Every Child, health care professionals and policy leaders will be able to make informed decisions that better support health outcomes for all children.
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To view the full report as it appeared in The Globe's print edition: UofC Medical innovation