Journeys of Hope Podcast - Episode Sixteen

How can technology help children with complex medical needs communicate, move, and experience greater independence? In this episode of Journeys of Hope, host Rebecca Solomon explores the transformative power of assistive technology at Blythedale Children's Hospital.

Joined by JeanMarie Florkowski, Senior Occupational Therapist, and Andres Guerrero, Rehabilitation Engineer, Rebecca takes listeners inside the innovative world of assistive technology and the life-changing solutions helping medically fragile children thrive. From customized communication devices to adaptive equipment that enhances mobility and independence, JeanMarie and Andres share how collaboration, creativity, and cutting-edge technology are opening new possibilities for patients and their families.

Tune in to learn how Blythedale's assistive technology team is empowering children to connect with the world around them and achieve milestones that once seemed out of reach.

You can also listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Key Takeaways:

1. Assistive Technology is about independence, not just devices
2. The best solutions come from collaboration
3. Small adaptations can have a huge impact 

TRANSCRIPT

Rebecca Solomon (00:05)
Hello and welcome to Journeys of Hope, a podcast from Blythedale Children's Hospital inspired by the strength, resilience and unshakable spirit of medically fragile children. My name is Rebecca Solomon. Today on the podcast, I'm joined by two incredible professionals from Blythedale who are changing lives through assistive technology. JeanMarie Florkowski is a senior occupational therapist. Andres Guerrero is a rehabilitation engineer.

Together, they help kids gain independence, communicate and thrive in ways that might not otherwise be possible. We'll be diving into their work, the technology they use and the real impact it has on patients and families. Jean and Andres, thanks so much for being with me.

Jean Florkowski, OTR, ATP (00:50)
Thank you for having us.

Andres Guerrero (00:51)
Thank

you. Yes.

Rebecca Solomon (00:52)
We have a lot to talk to you because certainly assistive technology, boy, it's everywhere, right? And certainly at

Jean Florkowski, OTR, ATP (00:59)
We're in.

Rebecca Solomon (00:59)
Blythedale Children's Hospital. Tell us a little bit about the team, how assistive technology fits into the mission of the hospital, and maybe a little bit more about your role specifically.

Jean Florkowski, OTR, ATP (01:10)
At Blythedale we're really looking to improve the health and the quality of life for those children with medically complex needs. And many of our population here, when you look at it, the way we kind of offer them an improved quality of life is to offer them supports. And assistive technology is one of those supports, whether that be feeding a mobility so they can access their environment, communication supports so they can have that voice, as well as other alternate access

means so that they can play with their peers and really enjoy life. So I think it really meshes really well with the mission of the hospital because that's the goal of assistive technology.

Andres Guerrero (01:49)
everyday assistive technology becoming part of not only a thing that it was necessarily for many people but it's becoming more accessible also. That is put us on a place that we need to bring this technology and show it up, what is inside, what is in there so everybody can know about it. I feel like that's a big part also of what we do as a hospital and a team.

Rebecca Solomon (02:18)
So you guys are the pros, right? You know all about AT, but the average person doesn't really know that much about it. I mean, certainly it's evolving and becoming more of a well-known resource, but what inspired the creation of your AT program and how has it evolved over time?

Jean Florkowski, OTR, ATP (02:37)
For many years we've been using assistive technology here at Blythedale

and that could be anything from you know a power wheelchair to a communication device to maybe even something as simple as an adaptive mouse to use to access the computer. So we've been doing it for years and we do have dedicated staff that have really kind of upped their education in that specific area to sort of become what loosely what everybody considers as the expert in that but we don't consider ourselves experts

but just having a broader knowledge base of how we can use assistive technology here. But I think the desire of those professionals alongside with me that have this was to kind of complete the puzzle for the families. So we consider ourselves each a puzzle in the child's world, and we really as a team wanted to bring it together and interlock it and make sure was a good fit. And I think in the end, it actually ends up bettering the outcomes

for the families because there's one point of contact, one hub that they can come and ask all their questions to. And then secondary, we get the bonus of as professionals to kind of improve our own competencies. We can brainstorm together, problem solve together.

can really kind of get the perspective of the lens of other people. And that really, I think, makes our team very unique here at Blythedale

Andres Guerrero (04:01)
Well, I just feel lucky that I belong, like I'm part of this wonderful team that has already exist for so many years. I feel like I was their last addition, even though that was probably almost 10 years ago. But yeah, I feel like we are kind of expertise on different areas as the team of assistive technology that we are. feel like that working and collaboration between each other make us a nice

and that can become really productive for all the needs that the other have here and also the children.

Rebecca Solomon (04:40)
why don't each of you just tell me a little bit about, know, kind of your role there and what got you into that here at Blythedale.

Jean Florkowski, OTR, ATP (04:49)
I think mine was kind of a loose step into it when a fellow peer kind of left Blythedale

and was the one that was sort of kind of owning the assistive technology for the occupational therapy department. And since I was using it frequently with some of my children at that time on my caseload, I just thought it was a natural kind of slide into something that I really saw the impact of what assistive technology can do. And I wanted to learn more about

it and not only learn more about it, I wanted to support my fellow therapists in gaining knowledge. So I think it was like the perfect fit for me to kind of come in there and both use assistive technology to help the children, but also support younger staff and newer staff in learning more about assistive technology and what it can offer.

But we are very,

very fortunate, and I want to put it out there, that

Andras has become part of our team. I know how lucky we are, and we feel it all the time, every time he creates a solution for us. So he definitely completed our puzzle.

Rebecca Solomon (05:52)
How do you do it, Andres?

Andres Guerrero (05:55)
I feel like my story is kind of unusual because coming from an engineering field I was never thinking about this is what they want to do. When I started studying in Ecuador where I come from I was never thinking about working on an environment like this, on the medical area. I was always just, I want to design, want to do robotics, do engineering, design something that is made by myself.

What was that I was never really thinking about what will be that, what industry will end up.

It was not until I started getting my master's degree is when I started really getting more involved on the assistive technology area, even without knowing. Because to me it was like I want to do a device that would help.

children. That was like the whole purpose of that project I had to do for the university.

And yeah, and I really love it. I found that as a passion for me to do something, that I have the skills, but I can use it to help somebody else and seeing it on that moment.

I feel like at that moment I was, okay, I really enjoy this. I really want to keep working on it. And luckily, I also find that Blythedale was looking for a rehab engineer. I applied, went through all the interviews. I had a chance to meet with the team.

and come to the hospital, see the wonderful job they did, and I was like, my god, I want to do this. This is a job I want to do. Even I never hear about it before in my life. But I think I was at the moment, and I had the skills at that precise moment. So I took that opportunity.

Rebecca Solomon (07:49)
a rewarding opportunity. Yeah.

Jean Florkowski, OTR, ATP (07:52)
Right? We're

hugging you, right? Welcoming you, hugging you. We're happy to have you.

Rebecca Solomon (07:57)
absolutely. Well, it's one of the most incredible teams here at Blythedale. How would you describe your team's collaborative approach when working with clinicians, families, and patients?

Jean Florkowski, OTR, ATP (08:08)
when we pull our perspectives together, we sort of can address the whole child a little bit easier. And I think that's really important for the child to be seen as a whole person, right? And not just what their list of needs are, right? We're not looking to say, this is your problem, let's fix it. We want to invite that child in too to the collaborative process because they should be. And really, they're

active members of the decision making to they're going to be using this assistive technology.

when we come together in house, I think we offer therapists that may have a little bit less experience in assistive technology. We offer consultation sessions. And what that looks like is you can bring your clinical discussion or you can bring a child and you're sitting with the entire team. And we kind of pull through different layers of what that looks like for the child.

and what they might need.

once we come up with more solutions, we can kind of support the therapist as to what the next step is in either providing a device, providing a tool,

or guidance into figuring out what the next step is for that child. So I think we do have a very supportive nature here.

We're always willing to help. And so we have that for in-house. And then for outside in the community, we do offer assistive technology.

evaluations and what I think is unique about us is that it's not just one individual given the assistive technology eval. We do have a team approach even to our evaluations just to make sure all bases are covered and if the family happens to have a question about a different area of assistive technology we can answer those questions at that moment.

Andres Guerrero (09:51)
it's not only about what the therapist have to say, but also families, as you say, children. It's really important for us to understand what actually they require.

what are the important needs for finding a solution, finding, or in my case, starting to design something, customize something, adapt something. It is really important for us to hear everybody that is involved.

Rebecca Solomon (10:18)
I'd

love to hear a specific example of how you identify the right AT solution for a child with unique needs. Maybe there's something that has happened recently or in the last decade that stands out as from beginning till end, what do you do? How do you identify, okay, this will work for this child because of this?

Andres Guerrero (10:41)
So with any work that we do, finding a solution, it always starts with the therapist.

a lot we do is mobility.

for...

children to have that opportunity to start moving around by themselves without somebody having to push their wheelchairs or a stroller. I feel like you see them. You see that they become kids. They become like, I want to explore here, run over there. And it's like, yes, you can do it, but in a secure way. So we have been working with a specific child using fiber optics. And this project has taken us a couple of years finding the exact

the exact movement that the child can perform to actually move the whole chair with her limitations.

Rebecca Solomon (11:35)
what do we need to create

to make this child, to give this child an opportunity to move and be mobile? And that's like, it's just such a different, the fact that you do this day in and day out, I mean, I can't think of anything more special

Jean Florkowski, OTR, ATP (11:53)
think when you keep in the mindset that it's not about us, right? It's about what does a child deserve? And for

Rebecca Solomon (12:01)
right.

Jean Florkowski, OTR, ATP (12:01)
us, even if we can't make them functionally independent, maybe at times at rare times we're hoping for, for functional independence, but there are times that the opportunity sometimes is just as important as the solution. And those

Rebecca Solomon (12:15)
Hmm.

Jean Florkowski, OTR, ATP (12:16)
opportunities and the trials that we offer the children here allow

us than to take it to the next step. So, you know, a lot of times we really assess the child and see what little movement that they might have. And even if it's a tiny bit of movement, we can make it have a big impact for them, right? So I think that's the whole first piece is kind of analyzing what the child can offer us on a consistent basis. And for some of those kids, it might be just their eye movements, and that's why they're going to use eye gaze. But for a lot of our kids,

even if they use eye gaze,

we really want to promote that. If you have another little bit of movement that could be a backup method, it's very tiring to use your eyes. And we also want to offer them, every kid that can move wants to move, right? Even if you're, you know, you're not using it in a typical way, if we can make any little movement functional for them, they just light up and they just, you know, they want to keep using that

movement over and over and over again. So I think when we look at it as a team, we first start there, trialing it as therapists, kind of figuring things out. And then once we're like, this might work, but we don't know how to either stabilize the device or really gonna position it for the child, we kind of bring in Andres and say, hey, how can you make this happen for us? This is what we need, but how can you kind of create it that it's gonna work for the user?

Rebecca Solomon (13:45)
Great. What are some of the most innovative or impactful solutions your team has developed recently?

Jean Florkowski, OTR, ATP (13:53)
as the innovator. do

have to say, interestingly enough, I think the most simplest solutions

have almost ones that shine the brightest for some of these kids.

that might be commercialized not positioned right. he whips up this, you know, place to put something that positions just right for the child to have that function

something so small, but functionally it becomes so big. So I think sometimes we do have this innovation, but we always do treasure the little things

and the little changes that have a big impact. Andres, you do a lot of different things in your lab. You can probably hear more.

Andres Guerrero (14:42)
Right. And

I work a lot with all the different fields here. I do a lot for OTs, I do some work for speech, I do also things for physical therapy. So it's trying always to hear, to listen to them and see what exactly they need. And yeah, I'm moving into these different projects all the time. So I think that's...

could be customizing a joystick, for example, for a wheelchair or making a specific kind of key guard for a communication device, or just trying to figure out how to stabilize the arms of a patient so that patient can play or access to the computer or access to their communication device. So there's all these different...

things that we develop over here that some of them, of course, is specific for these children. And that's why you won't find it commercially, because you are not going to make a whole industry for making these specific device that is for this specific patient. And so that's why finding these opportunity of development, this kind of equipment here in Blythedale I felt it make us unique. We are able to...

provide these services, provide these kind of devices for what exactly they need and it's going to be really challenging for them if you try to do it outside.

Rebecca Solomon (16:21)
there are so many children with different needs

the therapies look a little bit different. So are you able to adapt AT solutions for...

like group settings, is that even necessary at Blythedale? Where the needs may vary widely, is that even a thing? I I think of like the amazing activities, which we can talk a little bit about that you do like AT Olympics and where you create an amazing event filled with all different AT type of games and activities for every child to be able to play or take part in. Is that kind of where this would go into effect?

Jean Florkowski, OTR, ATP (17:00)
I think that's...

one aspect of it absolutely. think when we start working with a specific child and we offer them

device or the switch or however they're accessing it is superficial, right? The deeper side is what they can actually do with this device and what it means to them to be able to do something and to access their world. So I think for us, when we started creating more group events,

it was really

really to not even worry about the devices. got that, right? The solutions are there. But what is it about these solutions

we can kind of immerse it for their child and their everyday life? So I think that bridge for the children is we can offer them the solution and we can train them in it. But where is the bridge that they can feel safe to use it in a group setting or to use it amongst their friends or to use it in the classroom?

sort of make it that it's a normalized device in their world for them to be able to do everything that other children can do.

Rebecca Solomon (18:00)
Can you share a memorable success story where assistive technology made a meaningful difference in a child's experience?

Andres Guerrero (18:07)
I definitely have like one of my first designs that I did when I started working over here. It was something as simple as trying to give the opportunity to one of our child to access to the foot release on her manual wheelchair. For me, from the engineering point of view, it was like, okay, I know that it's not so complicated to do.

I can always just design something to make that kind of lever that you would need to pull to open that foot release. Trying to just modify it and make it telescopic so the person can reach it without having to lean because of her limitations. to me, from an engineering point of view, was kind of, yeah, okay, this is done, easy, here it is.

But knowing from the therapist point of view, how important was something like that for the independence of the child. For now, if she wants to move from the chair to her bed or to the bathroom, it was going to be totally easy and doesn't require another person to be always with her. just something that I saw it's kind of easy has.

become so practical and so life-changing for somebody. felt like, and that was kind of my first big project that I had here. And I was like, if this is gonna be what I'm gonna be doing, it's like, I really like this. I feel like I want more projects like this. I want to do things that, yeah, like I'm glad to join, I'm glad to help, I'm glad to assist the team with my knowledge and.

and with the tools that I have here.

Rebecca Solomon (20:03)
You see how it works and you see the reward behind it and you're like, why will I stop now? I'll keep going.

Andres Guerrero (20:12)
Right, and I feel like after that it has been project after project like that. It's not so... It's difficult for me to stop and think about how important this project was for me because it's more about how important this project was for them. I feel like that is really nice to see them become independent, able to access to any of their different devices and that's why...

this whole idea of assistive technology is about, giving them independence.

Jean Florkowski, OTR, ATP (20:50)
And we can learn from them. They offer some of the kids offer very direct feedback on what is working and what's not working. And that's a really nice thing for us to receive it. I know for Andres, it's really nice to receive just so that we know down the line what is important to them and maybe what we see is an easy way of doing things. They just don't want to do it that way. And that's OK. They should lead the way into deciding

what they're going to use.

Rebecca Solomon (21:22)
And

they're also, we have to keep in mind, these are children, right? And they have minds of their own and that's always something we have to be mindful of.

Jean Florkowski, OTR, ATP (21:33)
Absolutely. they're also, you know, we were talking about

like that one case or maybe where we have a few cases that have been like, touched us in more ways than one. And there was a particular child that I had years back where the technology was good, but it's not nearly what it is now. And we sort of had to think outside the box and he had a congenital myopathy. He was vent dependent, significant contractures in his arms and his legs. So not a lot of active movement.

but was a significantly anxious child. And in that situation, when I went bedside to him and, you know, we sort of had to build that rapport in that relationship, you know, I realized that many of these kids day in and day out have things done to them, right? That they're not, they're always kind of looked at as to what medically needs to be addressed, where we forget the child side of things, right? That they're, they want to kind of have some level of control. So for him,

I realized his anxiety came from the fact that he had no control over his day and just kind of having those conversations You know with him and saying, you know, what's important to you? What do you want to do? What is it that you can't do and you know simple things like I want to move somebody to move my right arm before my left arm I want you know somebody to turn the TV on and I don't want that You know that channel little things that we think is so, you know, my new is for them. It's their body. It's their wants

that they want to be heard. So I remember for him, we had to think outside the box for assistive technology and we ended up using a mouse that was actually used for your head movements, but we kind of geared it towards using his finger movement. And, you know, when you offered that to him, he immediately got it, immediately understood it. And when he realized this can control my TV, this can control my YouTube videos, this can control, you know, he just wanted to use it more.

and more and the buy-in allowed us to, then he was a little bit less anxious and a little bit more trusting to try other, you know, paramobility and different things like that. And I always think of him because he has passed, but he shows people that it's not just, right, it's not just the assistive technology and offering it. It's kind of seeing the child past a diagnosis. Yeah.

Rebecca Solomon (23:59)
Thanks for sharing that. That's really

important. And thank you for all you do and giving these children the empowerment. yeah, that is really interesting. We don't often think about that. And it's so important to let the children in the appropriate times to lead the way and give them that confidence in their own way. So yeah, it's great.

All right, so before I get to my next question, we now have Andres and Jean sitting together because coincidentally, a topic about technology. Technology has failed on us and Jean now is joining us alongside Andres in Andres's computer. So thank you. We're making it work, right? That's it. That's all you can do. We love it. Gotta love it.

Andres Guerrero (24:45)
making it work all the time. That's all you can do.

Rebecca Solomon (24:49)
All right, so we wanna talk about supporting awareness or access to AT. Tell us about those.

events or programs that you host and how do they raise awareness?

Andres Guerrero (25:00)
I as a team we always...

hear often when children, especially the children that we have here that has such complex needs, that they go into an event and somebody that's, bringing them will often say, you know, let's find something for you to do. Let's see if there's something for you to do. And we just felt like that wasn't enough. We wanted to make sure that when a child goes into any event that they feel that they belong, they feel ready to participate, and that they can enjoy the event as fully as every other child.

as a team, we came together

and we said why not make some of these adaptive events,

so we do it maybe four times a year where it's very inclusive based and we really, adapt different activities based on a theme that we might have at that time and anybody that comes in no matter what your motor ability

you should be able to fully immerse yourself in the experience and experience everything that's in the event.

alongside your peers. So it's a great chance just for socialization, for fun, all while building this awareness to assistive technology.

Rebecca Solomon (26:08)
Wonderful. And I'm sure you have fun creating the activities and the themes and the games and everything that these kids are going to have access to.

Andres Guerrero (26:17)
yes, I'm trying to adapt basically everything to be used with a switch, any kind of switch, and trying to make it so it could have lights, it could have music, could have like multiple ways to call attention to the users.

some of our kids are not just looking at the motor function of the child, but we also just want to make sure that we're tapping into any children that might have, you know, a visual impairment, some sensory needs as well, or cognitive concerns, that they'll be able to as well enjoy the activities that we have at these events.

Rebecca Solomon (26:53)
How do you stay current with rapidly changing technology while ensuring solutions remain practical and accessible.

Andres Guerrero (26:59)
administration here has been quite a supporter of us and

completely have gratitude and appreciation for that because we're able to go to conferences, we're able to present at conferences, you know, and going there you get to kind of hear other people's perspectives in the field, what's working for them, what's not working for them. We get to share what Blythedale is all about. We just recently did a presentation on these adaptive events and people, you know, really come to us and say this is amazing.

This is what we want to do, whether it's at a school, whether it's at a program, because they realize that every child should have that joy of playing and that feeling of belonging.

really the opportunities that come from these events and sharing about anything that projects that we've done with other people, it kind of makes us feel

like we're on the right path for Blythedale, but it's also really nice to receive information from colleagues and other people in the field and vendors and companies to know what's upcoming and what we can get trials on. So it's really, think we as a team really do try and do our best to try and keep up with all the ever evolving technologies and changes as best we can.

Rebecca Solomon (28:23)
I think

it's pretty clear and you should be proud of yourselves for everything you do and the work that you put into it, the time that you spend presenting at conferences and what your, the information you're gaining there is also probably valuable, but it really shows in the work that you do.

Andres Guerrero (28:42)
Thank you.

Rebecca Solomon (28:43)
Yeah. Andres, anything you want to add there?

Andres Guerrero (28:47)
I feel like it's also a great opportunity for us to work directly with different companies and providers to see what they have, new products that they already have or they are bringing as prototypes. Because from the point of view of designing, I don't want to start developing something that, next year we already have it.

we could be glad to collaborate with you so we can try it and we can have like demo. So that's a great way for us also to have always, you know, like the last piece of technology that is outside but over here so the children have chance to try it on the clinic.

Rebecca Solomon (29:23)
What are some common misconceptions about assistive technology that you'd like to clear up?

Andres Guerrero (29:30)
It's not about the device, it's about the journey. I feel like when you first kind of...

experience assistive technology, your attention really focuses on the tools and the devices. And I always say it's a journey of reassessment. Many of your clients will often

change, either have a level of recovery where they get better and they don't need as much assistive technology, but we also have the opposite where you might start with one device, but if there's a decline in function, you kind of have to reassess and change up your

technology

frequently for the needs of the person. So I always remind people to two things, keep the person, the user that's going to use the device at the center of your decision making and know that it's a journey, it's not a one-stop solution and I think that's the best way to kind of like kind of join their journey with them. I always say join the journey with them,

walk alongside them.

Thinking about assistive technology could be so like from point of view more like a clinical thing or medical thing, but no, I feel like there's a lot of things outside that we all use that are basically assistive technology. When you think about like, I'm going to use my, for example, Amazon to say turn off and turn on the lights in my house. That is an assistive technology that works for everybody and especially is going to help people with disabilities.

So that means that people have things that could be used for many others and it could be really accessible on cost because when your market is much bigger, the price is lower than when it's actually a medical device.

Rebecca Solomon (31:20)
what excites you most about the future of assistive technology in pediatric care?

Andres Guerrero (31:27)
I feel like...

From the technology point of view, it's always about the innovation of technology, seeing other companies, big companies trying to do things that could be useful for assistive technology, getting more involved. For example, in the last year that we had Xbox being able to do their Xbox adaptive controller. Logitech also making beautiful switches. They do keyboards, they do mouse. Companies that are not specifically on the medical field doing this kind of technology.

making

it so everybody can afford it is great. And so I feel like I really hope the future is keep modeling that, keep seeing like, okay, we have the equipment, we have the machinery, we can make these things for a market that is not about making money, it's about giving what a population need. So I feel like that will help not only making devices to be more accessible to people, but reducing costs in general. I feel like that is

like a wonderful thing. And the other is a technology like 3D printing

There's many, many years that people have been using 3D printers, but

you can see like everyday communities growing and trying to do things for people with disabilities, building their own library of equipment, building their own devices. So that's also really helped, really helped.

people that in other ways they are not going to be able to access them in any different areas, know, not only children but also for elderly population as well. So it is this kind of devices that many people can, you know, buy, have one at home and, you know, like tinkering, learn a lot of things on YouTube and also the use of artificial intelligence to reduce the part of

the complexity of designing something, that's going to make more people to be able to access to different tools and incrementing

Rebecca Solomon (33:29)
interesting.

Andres Guerrero (33:29)
the possibilities of what you can actually 3D print. you know, like technology will improve materials, improve the cost of making things, making files more accessible. it is pretty interesting to see what the future is going to be in this area, but always thinking about like a responsible way to do it, not because you can do

something on a 3D printer means that you should do something.

I do agree with Andres that when you have these larger, you know, corporations really looking at accessibility and really putting that in the forefront,

It only opens the door more for people to be able to get something that can support them. Whether it be Apple or Google or Microsoft or any other companies, these companies really are trying to...

broaden what users can use for their devices and how they're doing that is they're really stepping up their accessibility features and, you know, they're not 100 % for some people, but they are, you know, really kind of standard, you know, they're part of the device. We're not adding anything to it, which makes things a little smoother.

Rebecca Solomon (34:40)
Yeah.

Andres Guerrero (34:40)
in regards

to that. I also, know, AI was something that I'm curious to see where that's gonna go, but then we are always, you know, we always hear about these brain controlled interfaces or BCIs and, you know, lot of it was, you know, in the adult population, but they are starting to get into the pediatric population. A few are out on the market just to see what they are. So it's basically if you have, you train yourself, if you have that thought, it will, you know, respond to your thoughts.

to your thinking and you can even further that up with a little bit more of the exactness to it.

But just to see where that's going to go. Is it going to be an active path for some of our families or is it still just going to be not the right fit? Right, and especially from the non-invasive kind of point of view, like things that you can use because will be cool in a certain way, like, I can do this just by thinking about it.

I feel like if you think about doing that as a device that, you know, curiosity for many people and that will help also making it accessible. I, that mean that it's not gonna be super expensive. So hopefully, you know, like the technology will reach that part that we can just do something and we'll be precise because things exist already for reading what...

brain waves are like are doing in a specific case, but with the precision to interpret each of these waves to be able to do different actions. That's the difficult part that I feel like, yes, I can see this becoming a thing in probably 10, 20 years. And again,

be accessible because if yes, I have device cool you can use and have that working but it's gonna cost you five, six thousand

Rebecca Solomon (36:34)
Yeah.

Andres Guerrero (36:35)
dollars and it's like no I'm not gonna buy it.

Rebecca Solomon (36:37)
No, right. We

see the work that our department is doing every day with assistive technology and there's so much success around it and it is changing lives. Get it in the hands of people who need it, make it accessible, right? I mean...

So often it comes down to cost, it's just one of those things that we see the amazing magic of assistive technology and what a cool thing to think about the future and maybe just having it more accessible to more people.

Andres Guerrero (37:14)
And you've been to some of our events and you

Rebecca Solomon (37:17)
They're so fun.

Andres Guerrero (37:18)
know, firsthand seeing, touching and feeling and understanding, what these switches could do for somebody, right?

we want more non-AT users to get a feel for it, to understand,

another tool that somebody uses in their day.

it's really opened the door to having, people come

in and experience it right alongside our kids and get the enjoyment right along with them. know, any child smiling, any child laughing is sort of an addiction to see for some of our staff here.

Rebecca Solomon (37:46)
It's a win. Yeah.

Andres Guerrero (37:48)
Yes, for some of our staff here. So it's really nice to see.

Rebecca Solomon (37:52)
Wow,

you both are fabulous. Keep up the amazing work. I can't wait to see what the future holds for both of you. I think AT is just going to continue to grow at our hospital, if it can even more, but it will. So under

your leadership, thank you. We will. You know it. We absolutely will, yes. I

Andres Guerrero (38:09)
Thank you so much. Keep joining our events. Keep joining our events. Exactly.

Rebecca Solomon (38:15)
do have one more question I'd like to ask each of you. How would you describe the meaning of hope?

Andres Guerrero (38:26)
The beacon of hope. always, know, every time somebody says that, I always think of a lighthouse. And I always think that that lighthouse is a staple, a stable entity for, you know, people going through, you know, good times and bad times through, you know, waves and storms. But the light will always be there. And I feel like sometimes that's what light gel offers families. That light to say no matter, you know, through the fog, through the rain, through the waves.

keep coming in our direction and we'll be there for you. So I think that's what resonates with me is just when I see Beacon of Hope, think it's the staff behind it and everything we can offer, the families of what they're offering us. But for some reason, I always think of that lighthouse.

to me is having an objective, having a goal in your life that keeps moving you forward. I like that.

Rebecca Solomon (39:24)
That's beautiful. That's it. That's the, that's short and sweet. You can't go wrong with that, with that, with any of your answers. that was wonderful. Yes.

Andres Guerrero (39:27)
I like his answer better. Because you gave me time for thinking. had time for thinking.

Rebecca Solomon (39:40)
Well, wow. What an amazing conversation. Thank you both so much for joining us on this episode. Assistive technology really is such a,

that in itself is, think,

hope and I think yeah again I'll be very excited and anxious to see where AT will be in another year from now five years from now 20 years from now so yeah thank you so much I appreciate it all

Andres Guerrero (40:07)
Thank you.

Rebecca Solomon (40:09)
right well we hope you enjoyed listening to this episode of journeys of hope if you have ideas for future topics we'd love to hear from you you can email us at podcast at blythedale.org

And don't forget to subscribe to our podcast and like and follow us on social media. Thanks so much and we'll see you next time.