CUTTING EDGE NEURO TECHNOLOGY: UPDATES FROM PHOENIX CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL/BARROW NEUROLOGICAL INSTITUTE'S ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM | APRIL 29TH, 2024

On Friday and Saturday, April 12th-13th, 2024, Phoenix Children’s and Barrow Neurological Institute held their 26th Children’s Neuroscience Symposium, where various esteemed speakers presented their respective topics in the field of children’s neuroscience. 

Notably, for those attuned to cutting-edge intersections of technology and health, one of the talks during the conference explored the “digital health toolbox.” For example, by examining data related to clinician-to-patient and clinician-to-clinician relationships, various factors of digital health can be examined. These various ways that digital health can be implemented in our healthcare systems include virtual visits, remote monitoring of patients, image exchange and storage, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning. 

A specific example discussed during the symposium was about epilepsy. Treating epilepsy may require surgery to disrupt aberrant electrical activity.  One option for minimally invasive surgeries described was thermal ablation surgery, also known as laser interstitial thermal therapy (LITT) procedure. LITT has advantages as “a lesser invasive surgery for carefully selected people with epilepsy that does not involve opening the bone covering the brain” (Epilepsy Foundation). By conducting this minimally invasive surgery using laser technology, patients are able to go home much sooner, often in as little as 24 hours post-procedure. This is just one of the many examples of technology being used in the field of neurology/neurosurgery. 

For patients whose head shapes are identified as plagiocephaly and macrocephaly and who are recommended to get craniosynostosis, physicians are using 3D-printing technology as a guide for virtual surgical planning. Not only is 3D-printed technology being increasingly utilized, but companies like Cranial Technologies(™) have made helmets for babies using bioengineered technologies to correct babies’ head shapes.

While technology and AI can assist physicians in planning, they do not replace clinicians’ judgment on which technologies are right for a particular patient. Physician-patient relationships built on trust, discussions of risk/benefit/alternatives, and patient values will continue to be key as emerging technologies expand treatment option horizons.  

References:

Epilepsy Foundation. (n.d.). Thermal ablation. Retrieved from https://www.epilepsy.com/treatment/surgery/types/litt-thermalablation#:~:text=Thermal%20ablation%20is%20also%20called,carefully%20selected%20people%20with%20epilepsy

By: Himanshi Kapoor/Dr. Jennifer Hartmark-Hill