Accelerating Pediatric Digital Health Innovation Through Deep Institutional Collaboration

The Big Unlock · Omkar Kulkarni, VP, Chief Transformation & Innovation Officer, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA)

In this episode, Omkar Kulkarni, VP, Chief Transformation & Innovation Officer at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), outlines the stark funding gap in pediatric innovation, which receives less than 1% of digital health investments despite children making up 20% of the population. To combat this, the CHLA-led KidsX consortium unites children’s hospitals nationwide to scale early-stage digital solutions through collaboration over competition.

Omkar suggests that pediatrics requires entirely separate technological blueprints, hence digital tools must be designed for adult caregivers, accommodate strict adolescent privacy laws at age 12, and scale across diverse physiological sizes. He highlights vital innovation pipelines, including AI tools targeting the youth mental health crisis, longitudinal chronic care management, and 24/7 validated conversational interfaces for parents.

For healthcare startups entering this space, Omkar emphasizes that the key to building institutional trust relies on presenting deep, heterogeneous clinical evidence, establishing commercially viable billing frameworks, and practicing deep humility when approaching complex clinical partnerships. He believes that generative AI will not replace clinicians but will instead automate administrative tasks, empowering them to focus on top-of-license, human-to-human care. Take a listen.