Shaping the future of health care and extending Boston Children’s pediatric leadership by building new technologies, collaborating with industry, and deploying a comprehensive digital health platform.

Through the creation of the Innovation and Digital Health Accelerator, Boston Children’s reinforces a commitment to, and investment in pediatric innovation. We are combining our data, clinical expertise, and health care technology development experience, with leading worldwide industry partners – including start-ups – to transform health care. We work to surface, support and accelerate Boston Children’s innovations for the purpose of improving pediatric care Until Every Child is Well. Companies in our portfolio have raised over $100 million and we have successfully spun out five companies. Today, there is a new level of investment and urgency behind accelerating innovations and expanding our reach globally.

Our cross-functional team with expertise in software development, data analytics, clinical care and lean startup practices, work together to accelerate innovations and technologies from concept to global deployment.

Our Priorities

Digital Health

A team of clinicians, researchers, business development, and industry partners focused on addressing the unmet needs of patients/families, clinicians, and health systems across our network and around the globe. The goal is to develop and accelerate BCH digital health offerings to extend access, reach, and scale to BCH expertise, improving child health. Specific digital initiatives include:

Remote Care

Providing remote access to clinical services and expertise for patients families, clinicians, and institutions

Clinical Decision Support

Enabling and scaling clinical access to Boston Children’s deep expertise and data in rare and complex pediatric care, education and research by leveraging software and clinical decision support tools to extend our reach to providers globally.

Innovation platforms

Building scalable interoperable solutions, including FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) enabled technologies.

Innovation Acceleration

The acceleration process sources innovative ideas from industry and within Boston Children’s to vet and develop high-priority market competitive solutions with scalable impact. Leveraging extensive business and technical capabilities, Innovation Digital Health Accelerator identifies viable commercialization pathways for prioritized innovations, including digital health, medical devices, diagnostic technologies and care process innovations. The team then provides the resources, including grant funding, oversight and momentum to accelerate development and commercialization.

Technical Expertise

At Boston Children’s Hospital, we’ve been the leaders in pediatric innovation since the hospital opened its doors nearly 150 years ago. Innovation is in our hearts and in our heads. It’s our history and our future. Whether we are delivering care at the bedside or supporting those who do, we are all focused on the same mission – providing the highest quality care to the children and families who put their trust in us. We innovate for the future – for the children and families we care for, the ones whose faces we know and for the many more whom we don’t yet know.

With the establishment of the Innovation and Digital Health Accelerator (IDHA), Boston Children’s is taking the next step in shaping the future of health care and extending our pediatric leadership through new technologies, collaborations with industry, and the development of a comprehensive digital health platform. IDHA draws together a team from across Boston Children’s, including innovators and trailblazers in the fields of informatics, technology, clinical, digital, business development talent, and the TeleHealth team, and provides Boston Children’s with a mechanism for sourcing, vetting, resourcing, building, piloting and commercializing innovations in collaboration with others across the enterprise. IDHA contributes a breadth of experience in the following areas:

Development capabilities

  • Mobile apps
  • Web apps
  • Devices and hardware
  • Enterprise roll-outs
  • EHR systems

Delivery methods

  • Telemedicine
  • Remote health
  • Decision support

EHR interoperability/coordination

  • SMART on FHIR
  • Interoperability platforms
  • Care coordination