Needle Hub – Establishing a central resource hub for supporting children with needle procedures

In a new monthly Research and Innovation Spotlight Series, the Research and Innovation Team aim to showcase the exciting research and innovation activities being undertaken by staff at Children’s Health Ireland (CHI).

In this second entry of the Spotlight Series, we introduce Dr Sarah Carroll and her Innovation Project – Needle Hub.

In 2023, Sarah and her colleague, Dr Jennifer Twyford-Hynes, were awarded CHI Innovation Seed Funding for their project called Needle Hub. The seed funding grant programme runs annually through the support of the Children's Health Foundation. The programme is designed to support staff with starter funding for innovation projects, with a strong focus on patient and family participation.

Sarah and the team are following a design thinking process to co-design a hub which will support children with needle procedures. This will involve working innovatively to coordinate people, ideas and resources into one centralised location at CHI.