TITCH Schools programme

TITCH (Technology and Innovation Transforming Child Health) is a national network aimed at injecting much needed stimulation to paediatric healthcare technology innovation. At its core, its membership includes Alder Hey, Birmingham Children’s, Great Ormond St, Royal Manchester Children’s, Sheffield Children’s, Devices for Dignity, and Sheffield Hallam University. Other NHS and Academic organisations are associated with TITCH in a wider network that will continue to grow with time.

One of the key features of existing technology for children and young people living with Long Term Conditions (LTCs) such as diabetes, asthma, cerebral palsy, and depression is that they are often adult technologies repurposed for children/young people or, at best, designed by adults for children and young people. This can mean that the designers are often lacking some fundamental empathy of what it is to be a child or teenager of any kind, let alone a child or teenager living with a LTC. One of our beliefs is that children and young people might be in the best position to design appropriate technology solutions with and for other children and young people with LTCs; they will bring a contemporary empathy and tacit understanding of the motivations, desires, activities and influences that adults are less likely to have. The vision is that this could introduce an ‘X’ factor into the final solutions that means children and young people with LTCs will engage with the technology and devices more and through these technologies and devices, with the management of their condition.

The Schools Project set out to explore this.