ESPE Abstracts

Background: Over the last decade, and in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a substantial increase in the use of digital health tools to track growth and manage growth disorders in children. Paediatric endocrinologists acknowledge the usefulness of these tools in clinical decision making but lack confidence and skills to use them. Atique et al. designed a Massive Open Online Learning Course (MOOC) to increase digital health literacy, and identified a demand for more training to increase skills/capabilities to identify trustworthy and useful health information.¹

Aim: To educate on the management of growth disorders using digital health tools, we developed a MOOC to provide a comprehensive e-learning package.

Methods: The MOOC was designed to explore best practices for utilising digital health tools and data science to manage growth disorders in children and adolescents. Delivered over a 4-week period, with up to 3 hours of education per week, the content is divided into a generic understanding of technology and digital health tools, with a specific focus on the application of technologies for patient support and data-driven tools to support clinicians. It focuses on the principles underpinning the development of digital health tools (proof-of-concept to commercialisation), the process of co-design/creation in the development of digital health tools for children and young people, digital literacy, how to search and critically appraise digital health resources, and how to apply research methods for the evaluation of digital health tools while complying with regulations and privacy. Endocrine-focused learning covers emerging challenges, opportunities and digital health solutions for the management of growth disorders from the perspective of caregivers, patients and healthcare providers. It also focuses on patient-centred translational research exploring the long-term impact of digital health on adherence to therapy and the management of growth disorders, and on studies looking at technology acceptance aspects (e.g. usability, impact on quality of life and implementation strategies). Future opportunities are also explored to develop new technologies in the management of growth disorders.

Conclusion: Given the rapid expansion of digital health, and the drive for improved global connectivity as we enter a post-COVID-19 era, there is a need for the paediatric endocrine community to learn about opportunities to develop and implement digital health tools to manage growth disorders, and to explore opportunities with large international data sets to advance the management of growth disorders.

Reference: Atique S, et al. Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc 2016;2016: 5636-5639.