Jeffrey Burns, Boston Children's Hospital

SuperNova Award Category

• Future of Work
• Next Generation Customer Experience
• Technology Optimization & Innovation

The Company 

Boston Children's Hospital is known worldwide for its current and historical achievements. From surgical innovations performed by doctors to the discovery of new treatments by researchers, the hospital continues its excellence in providing the proper care and attention to all of its patients. We are a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital whose mission is:

• Provide the highest quality health care
• Be the leading source of research and discovery
• Educate the next generation of leaders in child health
• Enhance the health and well-being of the children and families in our local community

The Problem

No application existed to capture, deliver, exchange, collaborate and coach outside the hospital. The hospital's expert knowledge and experience could not benefit other hospitals or pediatric patients. The objective is to provide education on general principles and optimal practice in the diagnosis and care of an ill child anywhere around the world.

The Solution

Develop a collaborative, networked, open-source platform that promotes worldwide sharing and exchange of knowledge about the care of sick children. Specifically, the platform will provide:
1. information on demand on the care of ill children
2. a digital and video social network capability for collaboration and knowledge exchange
3. curricular pathways for training clinicians on essential concepts related to the care of ill children

The Results

OPENPediatrics is the first-of-a-kind platform that supports both physician and nursing curriculum. The platform is academically rigorous, peer-reviewed, not-for-profit, and highly available. It coalesces, leverages and scales the accrued wisdom of international partners - physicians, nurses and teachers - in a global effort to improve the care provided to ill children. Before OPENPediatrics, pediatric hospitals in remote locations relied on visiting physicians or new publications to augment their skills and medical pedagogy. OPENPediatrics offers information and content on an on-demand basis, supports a guided learning pathway of courses delivered by the use of various content types: calculators, summaries, simulators, and videos.

The Technology

OPENPediatrics™ uses innovative cloud-based delivery to effectively share knowledge and deliver advanced training efficiently. The technology is comprised of a combination of IBM technologies - IBM Connections, IBM WebSphere Portal and IBM Web Content Manage, and IBM DB2 - that form the online service layer, and a custom cross-platform rich media client that provides social networking tools to promote continuous collaboration.

Metrics 

Currently there are over 900 OPENPediatrics users in 330 hospitals, distributed across 246 cities in 72 countries - and growing.
each month there is a World Shared Practice event and to date six events have been held:  45 countried participated, 104 cities represented by 126 hospitals. Each month there is a World Shared Practice event comprised of a filmed video discussion and online commentary, and to date six events have been held:  45 countries participated, 104 cities represented by 126 hospitals.

Disruptive Factor

The OPENPediatrics Global Community is a digital social network that is radically transforming health professional education. It is providing a reliable means of sharing knowledge on the care of critically ill children across all environments. It is putting life-saving information in the hands of caring medical practitioners around the globe.

Shining Moment

The OPENPediatrics team experienced one of its greatest moments when a physician from outside the U.S. contacted Boston Childrens Hospital to let the team know that the OPENPediatrics application helped him learn how to properly accomplish a very tricky and dangerous intubation procedure. His comment was, "This is a game-changer. I know how to do this now." This is clear proof that OPENPediatrics is succeeding in it mission of changing the quality of pediatric health care globally.