Trends in Pediatrics

Every branch of science, including engineering and healthcare, has been progressing at a fantastic rate in this era of technology. Thanks to our advanced digital world, every industry has been witnessing amazing progress that has helped our civilization stand strong even in the face of major disasters, including the pandemic.

With that in mind, today’s article will focus mainly on the advancements and trends that we have been witnessing in one such industry — the pediatrics industry. The pediatric industry is the branch of the healthcare industry that deals with children.

Let’s take a look at the current trends and use of pediatric-specific technology that has been making an impact in this field.

Separation strategies for COVID-19

The pandemic has had a major impact on the procedures and formats of the medical world. Due to its nature, hospitals and healthcare are taking special measures to ensure the safe delivery and caring of newborns and kids.

Due to the outspread reach of the virus, special separation strategies are being observed by the pediatric departments around the globe. Some of the major strategies that are being maintained globally are as follows:

  • The spatial separation of patients with sick visits from the patients with good visits
  • Scheduling different hours of visits at different times of the day to avoid overlapping
  • Collaborating and coordinating with social services and community providers to arrange for separate spaces to receive patients and children holding well visits.

A well-visit here refers to the annual check-up of children for preventive measures. A sick visit, on the other hand, refers to attending to any sort of current injury or illness. The main objective of these strategies is to ensure that sick visits and well visits do not overlap with each other and thus, prevent any sort of communication of any kind of virus.

Due to the nature of the emergency, many practices have been unable to receive any good visits or have limited the number of visits. In such cases, pediatricians around the world are prioritizing immunization and vaccination of children of 24 months or newborns.

Rise of Telemedicine and Telehealth

Though it was evident that this particular technology would eventually gain more popularity, due to the pandemic, it got a head start. Telehealth or telemedicine is the new technology that provides health-related information and services through the use of digital communication technologies. Thus, here, the patients need not visit the health care centers or the doctor but instead can avail themselves of the services through electronic and digital means.

In the pandemic, rules and regulations for telemedicine saw immense relaxation as patients reached out to their doctors over messaging apps, video call apps, and other e-health apps. The pediatrics department, in particular, saw an immense rise in the numbers.

Pediatric telemedicine apps deliver remote care to children at homes, preschools, schools, etc. using audiovisual communication, messaging, and image sharing functionality. Such apps are often integrated with practice management systems, imaging software, and other healthcare software. With that, more and more businesses have started coming up with telehealth and telemedicine apps and software services.

Architecture of Telemedic

Support for Mental Health

Another major impact among the youths of the world that the pandemic had was widespread mental health issues. The numbers, in fact, have increased ten-fold since the start of the pandemic. More and more youths have reported suffering from depression ever since the schools closed down.

Therefore, pediatrics departments around the world are responding through various means. Technology plays a major role here as it is one of the main mediums through which pediatricians are reaching out to children and the youth.

The world is witnessing the use of social media to spread awareness about mental health issues among youth to the world through a variety of content. Various apps and software are coming forward that addresses these issues of mental health for children and the youth.

The ‘Living Drug’

Another major trend that has been going around the pediatric industry is the use and study of the ‘living drug’ or the Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-Cell Therapy (CAR T-Cell Therapy). CAR T-Cell Therapy is a type of immunotherapy for cancer where a patient’s T-cells or disease-fighting cells are genetically engineered to specifically recognize and act on cancer cells.

It has been, up till now, effective on one of the most common forms of cancer in children — acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Studies are still ongoing and scientists have recognized it as one of the most revolutionary means to fight back advanced blood cancer.

Wrapping up

Science keeps advancing and technologies keep evolving resulting in the progress of various industries around the world. The pediatric industry too has been witnessing major changes and hopes to keep it up even in the future.

While the pandemic might have kick-started major trends, the industry keeps welcoming more medical advancements. What you read above is a very small part of the major trends making its round around this industry, with more coming up every single day.