vCreate technology pilot bolsters neonatal follow-up care

vCreate Neuro is a video service offering a secure digital pathway for families to send smartphone-recorded videos of their infant or child to their clinical team.

Suzanne Offer, Paediatric Physiotherapist at NHS Highland, tells us about their team's experience of using this platform in neonatal care. "Since August 2020, our neonatal team has been lucky enough to work with vCreate in a Scotland-wide pilot project to co-develop the platform’s interface to meet the needs of a neonatal follow-up service."

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APCP Neurodisability Committee Update

The ND committee has continued to meet regularly with virtual meetings since June 2020 and is now in its 7th year. Many of our original members had been on since we started in 2014. In keeping with APCP National committee guidance, we have been working to avoid everyone coming off committee at once to ensure continuity. In January, we welcomed Tabitha Folly (Spina Bifida representative) and Claire Higgins (London representative). This year we will have 3 members stepping down, me included. In 2022, our Spinal Cord Injury specialist and Cerebral Palsy specialist will also be coming off the committee.

Vacancies will be advertised in July but we will have openings for representatives for Scotland, West Midlands and Acquired Brain injury. We are a dynamic and productive group of dedicated professionals, and a great bunch of people to work with. If you haven’t been involved in APCP at a national level and are keen to get involved, please apply or get in touch to discuss further.

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Katie Kinch
ND Committee Chair and Scotland Representative

Regional Round-Up - East Anglia

As a Region we have been very busy over the past 12 months with either redeployment into the adult sector or changes in our day to day treatments using different platforms such as MT, Zoom etc. Our committee are no exception to this and we thought it would be useful to share a couple of their experiences!

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pGALS Plus: A tool to facilitate the identification and assessment of children with serious musculoskeletal disease

The pGALSplus study began in October 2018, and is funded with an unrestricted educational grant from Sanofi Genzyme. Our aim is to create a ‘toolkit’ based on pGALS (paediatric Gait ,Arms, Legs and Spine), to be called pGALSplus, that will include screening questions and assessment, in order to facilitate identification of children with serious musculoskeletal pathology, and signpost them to the correct service. This toolkit is aimed at professionals who may not have had extensive paediatric training, but who may see children as part of their practice.

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Vicky Mercer MCSP Dr Nicola Smith
Research Associate pGALSplus Research Associate pGALSplus
Vicky.Mercer@ncl.ac.uk Nicola.Smith@newcastle.ac.uk

The Opportunities within Leadership Placements

Deborah Wilson (Professional Lead for Children's Physiotherapy, Sussex Community NHS FT) and MSc physiotherapy student Rachel Chandler have openly shared their experiences of a paediatric leadership placement, exploring both the possibilities and opportunities that lie within these alternative placement settings.

"On the first day I remember Debs saying ‘it doesn’t matter what you end up doing, it’s about the journey’ - Initially, I felt confused by this, but as the placement progressed what she meant became clear." - Rachel Chandler, Physiotherapy Student

Both Rachel and Deborah welcome you to get in touch if you would like to share experiences or discuss ideas further: d.wilson20@nhs.net. or via Twitter: @Debs_Wilson / @RachelChandler_

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Reducing Length of Stay for Adolescents with Idiopathic Spinal Correction

The Great North Children’s Hospital spinal team perform 2 adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) corrections per week. The average length of stay for these patients was 7 days, which was one of the highest in the UK. We were the only centre in the UK not providing routine post-operative physiotherapy with mobility being nurse-led starting day 3 post-op. During Covid-19 demands on the orthopaedic physiotherapy team were reduced and temporary staff in post provided the opportunity to trial an MDT enhanced recovery pathway.

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Karen Makinson, karen.makinson@nhs.net

Have you taken part in the DoMore study?

This study aims to find new ways for young wheelchair users to move more, by co-designing a new digitally enabled, evidence-based intervention. Our first of four online workshops, which focuses on understanding sedentary behaviour of young people who are unable to walk, is open now. You can register to take part on our website.

All physiotherapists who work with non-ambulant young people under 25 can take part. Please also let families you work with know about the study so they can get involved too, as we’d like to hear as many voices as possible!

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Marilyn Bradbury

Chief Investigator - DoMore study

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