Sheffield is set to deliver the first child health technology conference (CHT2021) in the UK in March 2021. This pioneering conference will bring together healthcare professionals, industry, engineers, computer scientists, designers, academics and patient representatives around one of the most exciting and fast moving fields in healthcare today. With an impressive speaker line up across four virtually delivered half days, the unique Live Lab offers delegates a showcase of the latest devices in child health tech.
The conference’s founder and Professor of Child Health at Sheffield Children’s Hospital, Professor Paul Dimitri, has been the driving force behind the emergence of Sheffield as a centre of excellence in child health technology. The launch of the conference follows plans for the Centre for Child Health Technology (CCHT) in Sheffield. The centre, hailed by global industry leaders as the first of its kind in the world, is set to change the future of healthcare. Recent research shows that for every £1 invested in child health the return is more than £10 to society over a life time. The £20m investment into the centre could return up to £200m to the NHS in the future.
Professor Dimitri said, “Children truly matter. Sheffield Children’s Hospital hosts networks that provide the foundation and expertise to accelerate adoption of technologies developed at CCHT and drive child health technology in the NHS. The CCHT will become the platform for the UK to be the world leader in child health technology.
Our conference in 2021 will be a little different than first planned as we move from a face to face meeting to a virtual platform. We are looking forward to the first gathering of academics, healthcare professionals, companies, designers, and patient representatives who are committed to the development of the world’s best healthcare for children and young people. At a time when long term conditions in childhood affect millions of children and cost the NHS billions of pounds annually it’s critical to create more opportunity for cross disciplinary networking and collaboration.”
Speakers at the conference include Dr Louise Wood CBE (Director of Science, Research, and Evidence, Department of Health and Social Care), Professor Tony Young (National Clinical Lead for Innovation, NHS England), Liz Ashall-Payne (Founder and CEO, ORCHA), Karen Livingstone (Health and Care Consultant, Expert in Innovation Funding), David Cole (Head of Business Development and Innovation EMEA, IBM Watson Health) and Gareth Presch (Founder and CEO, World Health Innovation Summit). The conference will also feature talks from patient advocates with lived experience as well as professional experts in patient involvement and co-design.
CHT2021 is being organised by NIHR Children and Young People MedTech Cooperative and Marketing Sheffield. The conference is event managed by Sheffield company, Event Management Direct. It takes place virtually from 2-5 March 2021.
Registration is now open at childhealthtechnology.com