Children's Hospital Los Angeles is spearheading a new digital health accelerator that will link 26 hospitals across the U.S., U.K. and Australia with 10 tech companies focused on increasing digital innovations in pediatric healthcare.
Applications for the 13-week program, dubbed KidsX, opened Sept. 1; the program will follow a reverse pitch model, which allows the participating hospitals to pitch their problems or challenges to the startup community and then work with the companies that have tech solutions to meet their needs.
Some of the problems on the KidsX wish list include wearables and bi-directional communication technologies for monitoring pediatric patients at home, tools to improve care transitions from pediatric to adult healthcare, and predictive analytics to identify potentially harmful clinical outcomes in pediatric patients.
Recognizing a lack of innovation programs in pediatric healthcare, CHLA united the 26 hospitals, which include AdventHealth for Children, Nemours Children's Health System and Seattle Children's, to kick start widespread collaboration, KidsX program director Omkar Kulkarni, chief innovation officer at CHLA, told Becker's Hospital Review.
"Pediatric hospitals by nature aren't massive places, and so we felt like there was a need for hospitals working with one another to build a larger collaborative effort that would allow us to get the attention of startup companies, investors and entrepreneurs," Mr. Kulkarni said.
Now, with a network of 26 hospitals around the world, participating systems will have the opportunity to pilot at least one of the new innovations and technologies from the 10 digital health companies in the program.
Applications for the accelerator close Oct. 7 and companies will be selected collectively by the hospitals Nov. 10. The 13-week program will then run every year from January through March.
The 26 hospitals participating KidsX:
- AdventHealth for Children (Orlando, Fla.)
- Akron (Ohio) Children's Hospital
- Arkansas Children's (Little Rock)
- Atlantic Health System - Goryeb Children's Hospital (Morristown, N.J.)
- Children's Health System of Texas (Dallas)
- Children's Hospital Los Angeles
- Children's Hospital New Orleans
- Children's Hospital Orange (Calif.) County
- Children's Mercy Hospital (Kansas City, Mo.)
- Children's Minnesota (Minneapolis)
- Children's Wisconsin (Milwaukee)
- Cone Health Children's (Greensboro, N.C.)
- Dayton (Ohio) Children's Hospital
- Great Ormond Street Hospital (London)
- Le Bonheur Children's Hospital (Memphis, Tenn.)
- Medical University of South Carolina Shawn Jenkins Children's Hospital (Charleston)
- Murdoch Children's Research Institute (Parkville Victoria, Australia)
- Nemours Children's Health System (Melbourne, Fla.)
- Nicklaus Children's Health System (Miami)
- Ochsner Hospital for Children (New Orleans)
- Orlando (Fla.) Health - Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children
- Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health (Indianapolis)
- Royal Manchester Children's Hospital UK (Nelson Street, Manchester)
- Seattle Children's
- Texas Children's Hospital (Houston)
- University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medical Center Golisano Children's Hospital