Boston Children's Hospital partners with digital health company Grand Rounds to offer expert second opinions

BOSTON, Nov. 10, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Boston Children's Hospital and San Francisco company Grand Rounds announced today at the Global Pediatric Innovation Summit + Awards (#PedInno15) a partnership to provide online second opinions for parents of children with medical issues.

The collaboration is two-pronged: Boston Children's physician specialists will join Grand Rounds' expert panel, offering second opinions to parents who work at Grand Rounds' client companies. Grand Rounds, in turn, is powering Boston Children's own online second opinion service.

"Everyday, we receive second opinion requests from families all over the world," says Boston Children's President and CEO Sandra Fenwick. "Through our partnership with Grand Rounds, families dealing with complex medical conditions, who are uncertain of how to proceed, can now receive a second opinion from our specialists, based on a thoughtful review of their child's records."

When a patient or parent requests an online second opinion, Grand Rounds aggregates the patient's medical records electronically, along with any imaging and test results, and prepares them for review. A Grand Rounds care coordinator and staff physician facilitate the entire process, matching the patient with a Boston Children's specialist who in turn provides a detailed written opinion in a matter of days. The Grand Rounds staff physician then phones the family to review the guidance and to facilitate referrals.

"Our goal in partnering with premier institutions like Boston Children's is to help more patients access expertise around their diagnosis and treatment plans," says Grand Rounds CEO Owen Tripp. "Removing barriers – geographic or otherwise – to world-class clinical expertise can spare children from unnecessary medical treatment, improve their outcomes, reduce medical costs and even save lives. We're proud to partner with Boston Children's as they extend the reach and impact of their leading specialists."

Grand Rounds was founded in 2011 and recently received an additional $55 million in venture capital funding. It contracts with employers, including many large Fortune 500 companies, to offer virtual and direct access to physicians shown to be practicing the latest and best medicine. Its customers include Comcast, Costco Wholesale and Evernote.

About Boston Children's Hospital

Boston Children's Hospital, ranked the #1 children's hospital by U.S. News & World Report, is home to the world's largest research enterprise based at a pediatric medical center, where its discoveries have benefited both children and adults since 1869. More than 1,100 scientists, including seven members of the National Academy of Sciences, 11 members of the Institute of Medicine and 10 members of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute comprise Boston Children's research community. Founded as a 20-bed hospital for children, Boston Children's today is a 404-bed comprehensive center for pediatric and adolescent health and the primary pediatric teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. For more, visit our research and clinical innovation and pediatric health blogs and follow us on Twitter (@BostonChildrens, @BCH_Innovation), Facebook and YouTube.  

About Grand Rounds

Grand Rounds provides a platform that delivers improved clinical outcomes for patients while reducing care delivery inefficiencies. It does this through an end-to-end solution that connects patients with highly specialized care that is informed by the latest and best practices -- preventing and correcting misdiagnoses, unnecessary and failed treatments. Founded in 2011, Grand Rounds helps restore individual health and quality of life, and benefits employers by facilitating decreased health care cost and increased employee productivity. For more information, please visit grandrounds.com.

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SOURCE Boston Children's Hospital

Related Links

http://www.childrenshospital.org