If you see children in the Máxima Center walking around with a backpack for immunotherapy, take a closer look: there are new light green backpacks and they all look different. The children can design and carry the backpack themselves. So they have them with a smiley face, ears, clips, etc. When a child goes home with dinutuximab-beta, he or she gets a backpack that can be completely customized in their own style. Inside the backpack is a medicine cassette containing the immunotherapy. The tube is connected to their VIT or IV. The backpack gives children more freedom of movement, which is important for their quality of life.
Test backpack
The design of the backpack was a long time in the making. In consultation with the supplier of dinutuximab-beta, a test backpack was designed and tested at the Máxima Center. Parents and children were asked to fill in a questionnaire on whether they liked the backpack, what color it should be, etc. One of the children wrote on the questionnaire: ‘I really like the backpack and I think it is very practical. I go to school with it. And I'm going to play outside with it too.’
Comfort
Leonie Aleven, nursing specialist, explains: ‘We all looked critically at the ease of use when changing a cassette, the comfort of putting on and taking off, the adjustability of the straps and zippers. The data from the evaluation of the test backpack was used to create the final model. All children who are prescribed dinutuximab-beta will receive a matching backpack. Hospital pharmacist Marieke Meijs says: ‘For this type of immunotherapy, this special backpack is very satisfactory. It protects the medication cassette and it is safe to change it. Whether we will use the backpack for other purposes in the future is still unknown. We still have to formally conclude the trial period.’