Team:Queens Canada/Tets

Interview Summaries:

 

Potential Application	Feedback
Pacifier for the general public (parental use) ●     Used by parents to monitor child’s stress levels when away	●     Issues pertaining to what the end result is; what does knowing this information mean? Intervention? ●     Could Δcortisol be indicative of something? ●     Creating a problem that doesn’t exist ●     Establishing what is a normal cortisol level and what should be a cause of concern is difficult ○     Individuals often have different baselines; would need to incorporate this into app ●     May be more stress-inducing in the parents ●     Parents already have intuition and ability to communicate with their children through other means (no need to replace this with technology) ●     As long as proper safety testing is deployed, “engineered protein” shouldn’t be a huge concern ●     May be helpful in preventing Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) ●     Expensive
Pacifier for the general public (parental use) ●     Used by parents to detect if child is awake/asleep	●     Other technologies already exist ●     May not be the fastest method to determine if infant is awake ●     May be useful to know child’s breathing rate and temperature while they’re asleep
Quantitative self care	●     Would need to change design from pacifier to something less visible ●     Similar idea to fitbits, etc. ●     Growing market ●     What would be the relevance of knowing changes in cortisol? ●     Don’t want people to confuse healthy cortisol changes with abnormal fluctuations/indicators of disease ●     Expensive
Monitoring device for non-verbal individuals (i.e. developmental disabilities) ●     Used to communicate stress and discomfort	●     Its use may be refused due to sensory sensitivity ●     Texture, taste, odour is very important ●     Must be incredibly durable, not a choking hazard (single piece not multi-components) ●     Better suited to be used as a diagnostic tool when something is believed to be wrong than just an everyday surveillance system ●     Financial barriers → who will be able to afford this product (will it be covered by insurance?) ●     Can’t use pacifier design, need a more age appropriate design
Research settings ●     i.e. salivary cortisol levels during psychology studies (refer to Harkness’ studies) ●     Salivary cortisol levels in different settings to gauge stress in the NICU	●     Could replace disruptive method of salivary collection and eliminate steps involved with sending sample off ●     More efficient ●     Could reveal critical information missed in current studies ●     Easier to complete studies with young children and infants ●     Since cortisol is such a sensitive biomarker that can fluctuate rapidly, it is important that the method used to collect the sample (i.e. needle) does not induce a change ●     Must be a very accurate test (sensitivity and specificity important)
Clinical applications ●     Used for diagnostic purposes ○     Adrenal insufficiencies ●     Communication of patient pain in non-verbal individuals (i.e. in neonates)	●     Non-invasive methods would be key for NICU and other infant applications ●     Could be used to complement sucrose as an analgesic (help to determine when to re-apply) ●     Concerns about biomarkers in saliva being as accurate as plasma samples ●     How reliable are the results in determining diagnosis (sensitivity/specificity)
Clinical application #2 ●     Used to monitor effects of hormonal replacement therapy ●     Used to determine progress and dosages (i.e. Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome)	●     Non-invasive method ●     Could be used to evaluate metabolism of hormone ●     Could make calls about changing dosage, etc. ●     Could help to determine how effective a treatment plan is in an individual