Seattle Children’s announced Oct. 26 that it is launching the Institute for Pediatric Innovation, an organizationwide effort to accelerate pediatric innovation, according to information shared with Becker’s.
Five things to know, according to the health system:
1. The institute is backed initially by a $5 million anonymous gift and a $5 million internal investment.
2. It will bring clinicians, researchers and industry partners together across eight focus areas: AI and digital health, industry partnerships, an innovation unit for piloting new workflows and care models, medical device innovation, precision medicine, research informatics and advanced computing, therapeutics, and training early-career scientists and clinicians.
3. The institute will be led by a vice president and chief innovation officer who has not yet been named. Three launch advisers will help build its strategic roadmap and recruit that leader: Kevin Koo, MD, an interventional radiologist and venture adviser; Matthew Lungren, MD, a healthcare AI leader with experience at Stanford and Microsoft; and Jessica Mega, MD, co-founder of Verily.
4. Projects will be reviewed by the health system’s AI review board, and those involving research will also go through institutional review board review.
5. CEO Christopher Longhurst, MD, who joined Seattle Children’s in January, told Becker’s in a recent interview that pediatrics “has been left out of a lot of innovation over the last decade.” He said most medical devices “are built for adults and used off-label in pediatrics, and we think we can really have an impact there.” The system is also testing an AI chatbot within MyChart to help families of patients under 12 interpret results, with plans to roll it out at scale by early next year, he said.
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