Digital Innovation Hub

About

Since its launch in 2013, the Brigham Digital Innovation Hub (iHub) has been a leader in Boston’s health care innovation ecosystem.

Leading digital innovation strategy to the Brigham community of clinicians, researchers, and staff, the iHub provides innovators access to larger and greater opportunities to advance their cutting-edge digital ideas and solutions by guiding the evaluation, testing, and implementation of their innovations into the hospital.

Serving as a connection point between experts across Mass General Brigham and the broader innovation ecosystem of startups, industry, and venture capitalists, the iHub helps enable and advance collaboration needed to achieve the promise of digital innovation and emerging technologies.

We believe that the development and implementation of digital solutions will be key to transforming the health care industry; leading to the increase in quality, access to care, reducing health care costs, and improving patient and employee experience. We are a dedicated team, with diverse backgrounds covering innovation, technology and entrepreneurship, working together to foster, enable, and accelerate digital innovation, implementation, and adoption.


Our Mission

The mission of the Brigham Digital Innovation Hub (iHub) is to drive more patient-centered, efficient and safe care through use, development, evaluation and commercialization of digital health. The iHub does this by identifying and evaluating internal and external technology to address hospital challenges and by matching potential solutions to meet hospital needs. The iHub also focuses on advancing early-stage ideas from internal Brigham Health clinicians, scientists and employees and building and implementing a digital health infrastructure. Additionally, the iHub works to foster a culture of innovation dedicated to the digital transformation of healthcare.


Our History

The founding of the Brigham Digital Innovation Hub (iHub) derived from an internal unmet need. When surveyed, about 72% of Brigham Health employees said they had an innovative idea but didn’t know how to make it a reality.

In 2013, the iHub launched as a resource center for innovators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital to advance their ideas for improving care, bringing technology-based ideas to fruition. Since then, the iHub has evolved into a broader digital health initiative, supporting internal innovators as they further their ideas and concepts, scanning and collaborating with industry to bring leading-edge digital solutions into the hospital, creating the hospital of the future.

Innovating from within the Brigham

We are excited to be disrupting from inside one of the nation’s leading academic medical centers to drive positive impact on patient care. As an innovation organization inside the hospital, with access to leading health care specialists and support from Brigham Health and Partners leadership, the iHub remains at a competitive advantage to accelerate digital innovation. The iHub aims to make innovation and the digital transformation of health care part of the Brigham’s daily routine.


2013

iHub Founded

Supported by the Brigham President’s Fund, iHub launched to foster and advance early-stage innovations and ideas led by clinicians and non-clinicians.


2014

Hackathons and Community Engagement

Our group held a series of events focused on supporting ideas generated internal by  clinician and staff. 


2016

Shift to Digital Innovation

After moving under the Brigham Information Services, iHub shifted its focus on digital health innovation. We launched a hospital-wide wayfinding initiative, mobile health development platform, and championed in MassChallenge accelerator.


2020

Supporting COVID-19 Response and Recovery Initiatives at MGB 

As a result of the pandemic, iHub was tasked to build and support several digital initiatives at the Brigham and across Mass General Brigham including COVID Pass and MGB Prescreen.

Our Team

Integrated Academic Health System

With the mission of fostering and testing new ideas in clinical settings, the iHub has helped innovators launch, advance and pilot projects focused on digital health to streamline hospital operations, improve care delivery and enhance the patient and employee experience.

The iHub also serves as a connection point between clinicians, researchers, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists, helping to navigate the complex institution that is an AMC.

Over the years the iHub has had the honor to work with innovators spanning many Brigham Health departments, academic levels and interest areas, as well as connected making extraordinary progress in improving patient care and advancing groundbreaking research. Using our strong close network to its fullest extent, connecting with leaders in healthcare, technology and education. This community is made up of innovators who have the passion to enable change, the courage to pursue high reward in the face of high risk, the creativity to get the job done, and the ability to make innovation accessible to all.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) is global leader in virtually every area of medicine and has been the site of pioneering breakthroughs that have improved lives around the world. A major teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, BWH has a legacy of excellence that continues to grow year after year. With two outstanding hospitals, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital, and more than 150 outpatient practices with 1,800 practicing physicians, BWH serves patients from New England, throughout the United States, and from 120 countries around the world.

BWH is an internationally-known referral center for the most complex cases in nearly all areas of medicine, and U.S. News & World Report consistently ranks it among the nation’s top 10 hospitals and in the top 10 for specific specialty areas that in 2014 include cancer, cardiology and heart surgery, gynecology, nephrology, and rheumatology.

Mass General Brigham

Mass General Brigham is an integrated academic health care system, uniting great minds to solve the hardest problems in medicine for our communities and the world. Mass General Brigham connects a full continuum of care across a system of academic medical centers, community and specialty hospitals, a health insurance plan, physician networks, community health centers, home care, and long-term care services. Mass General Brigham is a nonprofit organization committed to patient care, research, teaching, and service to the community. In addition, Mass General Brigham is one of the nation’s leading biomedical research organizations with several Harvard Medical School teaching hospitals.