Boston Children's Hospital's Digital Innovation and Health Accelerator Team volunteers with the Hacking Pediatrics Team at the Kids-only Minecraft Hackathon event held at the Museum of Science on October 1, 2016. *photo courtesy of Gilles Frydman

Boston Children's Hospital's Digital Innovation and Health Accelerator Team volunteers with the Hacking Pediatrics Team at the Kids-only Minecraft Hackathon event held at the Museum of Science on October 1, 2016. *photo courtesy of Gilles Frydman

The Hacking Pediatrics team is a group of geeks, all with the passion to hack the status quo in pediatric healthcare. We are surrounded by the smartest people in the world, yet these brilliant people from different backgrounds have never been brought together to help solve the biggest problems facing children and their families. This idea of collaboration led us to team up with the phenomenal group of hacking experts at MIT's H@cking Medicine and Hacking Pediatrics was formed. We're going to build incredible things that nobody would have ever dreamed of to help keep children healthy, happy and safe. 

Meet the Hacking Pediatrics Team

Kate Donovan, PhD, MBA, MS
Director and co-founder of Hacking Pediatrics

Twitter: @_The_Kate_D

Eternal optimist, serial idea generator, business owner, educator, creative consultant, developer, musician, volunteer, student, quintessential technogeek, LEGO aficionado

Kate is the Clinical Director of Innovation for the Department of Pediatrics, Simulator Program, and Innovation Digital Health Accelerator at Boston Children’s Hospital. She is a serial idea generator and has a deep interest in exploring pain points to help deliver enchanting solutions to improve the patient and family experience as well as operational efficiency for clinicians.

She introduced the use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) for clinical use and education at Boston Children’s Hospital and has been developing their VRx Program within the Simulator Program. Her research includes the use of VR to decrease narcotic use prior to pediatrics medical procedures, the use of VR for empathy and exposure therapy and education for families and clinicians. She is a sought after speaker, mentor, and collaborator on the use of VR with pediatric patients in the healthcare arena and innovation. Kate is proficient in numerous programming languages including Unity and is an expert video editor in both 2D and 360 formats. She takes a thoughtful approach to all of her projects and uses centered design strategies to build experiences from the lens of the clinician, family and patient. She is co-founder of Health Voyager, a VR experience that incorporates endoscopy findings into an engaging platform for patient education and founder of mARk and the CAITLYNN Project which uses both AR and 360 video to help children with complex medical needs transition home safely.

Kate received her BS from Harvard University and her PhD, MBA and MS in Computer Science from MIT with her research focusing on the complexities of integrating data from consumer healthcare applications into clinical care management. Kate shares her passion for STEM with free educational opportunities for at risk teens throughout the Boston area and insists that her students teach her more than she teaches them. When not working, teaching or managing her 2 businesses, Kate can be heard playing music with her band, flying drones, being in complete awe of space travel and overall being curious about life and the amazing people she encounters on a daily basis.

 

Leila Amerling, MBA
Hackoordinator Rockstar

Twitter: @LeilaAmerling

Leila is a Program Coordinator at the Computational Epidemiology Group and Innovation Acceleration Program at Boston Children's Hospital. Leila has previously worked in the Education and Finance industries. She received her MBA in Germany in 2007, with a double specialization in Innovations and Strategy & Organization. 

 

Sarah Lindenauer, MPH
Hackoordinator Rockstar

Sarah Lindenauer is a Product & Portfolio Manager within the Innovation and Digital Health Accelerator (IDHA) at Boston Children’s Hospital. She is focused on accelerating digital health technologies through the development pipeline from inception through commercialization. She is also responsible for managing the accelerator portfolio of innovations and is involved in a number of R&D efforts around the application of voice technology in healthcare. She enjoys working with clinicians and entrepreneurs to build and scale market-competitive technologies for patient impact.

Prior to joining Boston Children’s, Sarah worked as a digital strategist for InVentiv Health, consulting to biopharmaceutical and medical device companies. Before that, she worked for a digital health start-up, where she developed a multi-disciplinary framework for the evaluation of third-party health apps and advised product managers regarding the optimization of user experience for behavior change.

Sarah received both her Master’s in Public Health and her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.


Meet Our Hacking Pediatrics Advisors

Michael Docktor, MD
co-founder Hacking Pediatrics

Twitter: @MichaelDocktor 

Physician, entrepreneur, mobile evangelist, app developer, technophile, serial positive deviant

Michael loves medicine and taking care of patients. He is mesmerized by technology and passionate about making it easier to care for our patients. He believes that we can improve the health and wellness of  everyone by bringing consumer technology, informatics and design into healthcare. There is incredible power in thoughtfully designed systems, engaging user experiences and simplicity. He loves seeing what happens when brilliant people from different disciplines get together to solve problems. He wants to help clinicians innovate to improve healthcare.