Ep #011: Dr. Juan Espinoza
Children Can't Be an Afterthought: A Conversation with Dr. Juan Espinoza
What if we stopped asking how to adapt medical technologies for children...
...and started asking how to innovate for children first?
In this episode of Bluestock Talk, Allison is joined by Juan C. Espinoza, MD, Executive Director and Principal Investigator of the Consortium for Technology & Innovation in Pediatrics (CTIP), and Chief Research Informatics Officer, Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, for an inspiring conversation about the future of pediatric medical devices.
Although children make up nearly one-quarter of the U.S. population, pediatric healthcare continues to receive a disproportionately small share of funding, research, and reimbursement, with less than 10% of all healthcare dollars going to pediatric care. Dr. Espinoza explains why that gap exists and what it will take to build an innovation ecosystem that truly serves children and their families.
One of Dr. Espinoza's most thought-provoking questions:
"How do we innovate for children first?"
That question leads to a broader discussion about designing devices specifically for pediatric patients, partnering with families from the earliest stages of development, and creating incentives that encourage companies to think about children before, not after, a product reaches the market.
Along the way, Allison and Juan discuss:
• Why pediatric innovation has historically been underfunded
• The role of the Pediatric Device Consortia Program and CTIP
• Designing medical devices for children at home, not just in hospitals
• Why families are eager to participate in research and product development
• Balancing benefit and risk in pediatric medical devices
• The importance of collaboration across industry, regulators, clinicians, researchers, and patient advocates
Juan also shares why continuous glucose monitors have transformed diabetes care, and why improving access to proven technologies may be just as important as inventing new ones.
Key Takeaways
• Children deserve to be part of the innovation conversation from the beginning
• Families are valuable partners in research and device development
• Home-use design is a critical opportunity in pediatric MedTech
• Collaboration is essential to advancing pediatric innovation
• Better access to medical technologies leads to better patient outcomes
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Dr. Juan Espinoza
02:00 The funding gap in pediatric healthcare
08:00 The Pediatric Device Consortia Program
15:00 Why we should innovate for children first
22:00 Benefit-risk in pediatric devices
28:00 Designing technologies for home use
33:00 Partnering with families early in development
36:00 Continuous glucose monitors and expanding access
40:00 The future of pediatric innovation
Learn more about Dr. Juan Espinoza: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juanespinozamd/ and https://www.ctipmedtech.org/team-bios/juan-espinoza-md
WATCH THE EPISODE ON YOUR FAVORITE PLATFORM:
