BOSTON, MA - Jun 26, 2014 -

Boston Children’s Hospital will host its second annual pediatric innovation summit October 30-31, 2014 at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston. “Taking on Tomorrow” will convene top global leaders in pediatric health innovation including clinicians, scientists, engineers, investors, and health care, industry and policy executives, to exchange knowledge and ideas around the challenges and opportunities in pediatric health care.

“Taking on Tomorrow is an exciting opportunity for Boston Children’s Hospital to foster collaboration across industries and disciplines, academia and healthcare, even across borders and oceans,” says Sandra L. Fenwick, President and CEO, Boston Children’s Hospital. “If ever there was a time to work together on creating the future, it’s now. And if ever there was a place to do it, it’s here.”

Program participants will include:

• Ezekiel (“Zeke”) Emanuel, MD, PhD, bioethicist and former health advisor to President Barack Obama
• Bill Taylor, co-founder and founding editor of Fast Company
• Zulfiqar Bhutta, MBBS, PhD, inaugural Chair in Global Child Health at The Hospital for Sick Children (Toronto)
• William A. Gahl, MD, PhD, Clinical Director, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health
• Taha Kass-Hout, MD, Chief Health Informatics Officer, FDA
• Sachin Jain, MD, MBA, Chief Medical Information and Innovation Officer at Merck and Company
• Nicholas Negroponte, Co-founder and Chairman Emeritus, MIT Media Lab

The main Summit program will feature five panel discussions on topics including:

• Rare diseases - moderated by David Meeker, MD, CEO, Genzyme    
• Mobile & digital health - moderated by Scott Kirsner, Innovation Economy columnist, The Boston Globe
• Predictive analytics & big data -- moderated by Tom Ashbrook, host of NPR’s On Point
• Innovation acceleration - moderated by Naomi Fried, PhD, Chief Innovation Officer, Boston Children’s Hospital
• CEO panel: opportunities and challenges facing pediatric hospitals - moderated by Mark Wietecha, President and CEO, Children’s Hospital Association

“IBM is pleased to be the premiere sponsor of the 2014 Global Pediatric Innovation Summit + Awards,” said Michael Rhodin, Senior Vice President, IBM Watson Group. “IBM has been a partner in innovation with Boston Children's Hospital around OPENPediatics, the world’s first social education platform; OP is transforming how pediatric medicine is taught and practiced around the world.”

“At the Innovation Summit, IBM will join with Boston Children’s and global healthcare thought leaders to promote collaboration and innovation that improves pediatric care everywhere,” he said.

Additional sponsors of this year’s event include Cerner Corporation, Claritas Genomics, Genzyme, Life Technologies, and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. Partners include the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), The Institute for Pediatric Innovation, National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), and Network for Excellence in Health Innovation (NEHI). Media partners include the Boston Business Journal, Bio-IT World, Clinical Informatics News, MIT Technology Review and WBUR-90.9 FM (Boston’s NPR News Station).

Registration for Taking on Tomorrow is now open. Visit: www.takingontomorrow.org to see the full conference agenda, list of speakers and to register.

Follow @BCH_Innovation on Twitter for news and updates on the summit and join the conversation using #PedInno14.

When:   

Thursday, October 30, 2014   
8:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Friday, October 31, 2014
8:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Where:  

The Seaport World Trade Center
200 Seaport Blvd
Boston, MA 02210

For a media pass to the event, please contact: Keri Stedman, Boston Children's Hospital, 617-919-3110 or keri.stedman@childrens.harvard.edu .

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