Podcast & Infographic

How digital technology and AI can help improve adherence in growth disorder management

Sandro Loche, Italy

12 May 2026

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Overview

Long-term growth management can be challenging for patients, families and healthcare professionals [Child, 2020], and poor adherence to growth hormone treatment is a well-recognised issue [Savage, 2022]. Suboptimal adherence to rhGH therapy has been documented to substantially impair the growth response and attainment of adult height within the genetic target range [Savage, 2022]. Technology is being used increasingly to help adherence to growth hormone. Most visibly, it is used to alert healthcare professionals to an individual patient’s missed dose.  Once aware of the lack of medication use (by software linked to the medication device), trained healthcare professionals can contact the patient and their family to discuss the poor adherence and its circumstances. This digital detection of sub-optimal adherence to growth hormone therapy has made a significant difference to overall long-term growth responses [Savage, 2025; Dunkel, 2021]. The  availability of patient data from connected devices provides an opportunity for the use of artificial intelligence to predict adherence and personalise patient support, [Dimitri, 2021] empowering patients to engage in their therapy journey to establish collaborative, proactive and patient-centred care [Dimitri, Front Endocrinol (Lausanne), 2024].

Learning Objectives

At the end of this activity, learners should be able to:

  • • Evaluate the role of AI and other technological advances in enhancing clinical care of patients with short stature
  • • Appreciate that digital technology can improve patient adherence to rhGH

Target Audience

Clinicians, particularly paediatricians, working in growth disorder management and those in general practice; some content of interest to specialist growth disorder nurses.

Language

English with voice-over into Spanish and Korean

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Podcast & Infographic
How digital technology and AI can help improve adherence in growth disorder management

Launch 12 May 2026

Faculty

Sandro Loche

Sandro Loche

Pediatric Endocrinologist,
Bambino Gesu Children’s Hospital,
Rome, Italy
Biography

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FUNDING

· Martin O. Savage ·

Martin Savage is Emeritus Professor of Paediatric Endocrinology at William Harvey Research Institute, Barts and the London School of Medicine & Dentistry, Queen Mary, University of London. He was head of the Paediatric Endocrine Unit at Barts and the London School of Medicine from 1982 to 2007. He has interests in growth disorders, specifically those with abnormalities in the GH-IGF-1 axis and in phenotype-genotype relationships of GH-IGF-1 axis defects, notably GH resistance. He published the first human case of an IGF-1 gene defect in the New England Journal of Medicine in 1996.  His other interests are Cushing’s syndrome and growth in chronic inflammatory diseases. He was General Secretary of the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology (ESPE) from 1997 to 2004. He has lectured in 60 countries and has published 482 original articles, reviews, textbook chapters and books. In 2007, he was awarded the ESPE Andrea Prader Prize for contributions to paediatric endocrinology and in 2018 he received a Visionary Award from the American Human Growth Foundation. In 2022, he received a Research Excellence Award from the Dr Sulaiman Al Habib Medical Journal in Riyadh, and the British Society of Paediatric Endocrinology & Diabetes James M. Tanner Lifetime Achievement Award. He continues to lecture nationally and internationally.

· Sandro Loche ·

Sandro Loche is former head of Pediatric Endocrinology of the Microcitemico Hospital in Cagliari (Italy). He received his medical degree at the University of Cagliari in 1979, training in Pediatrics and Endocrinology at the University of Cagliari and in Pediatric Endocrinology at the Cornell University Medical College, New York. His main areas of scientific interest include: growth and growth disorders, neuroendocrine regulation of GH secretion, diagnosis and treatment of GH deficiency, childhood obesity. He has published over 150 articles, reviews and books. Sandro Loche is a member of the Italian Society of Endocrinology, Italian Society of Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes (ISPAD), Italian Society of Obesity, Italian Society of Medical Endocrinology (AME), American Endocrine Society, European Society for Pediatric Endocrinology (ESPE).

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