Dr. Michael Rich

Digital Wellness Lab at Boston Children’s Hospital

Founding Director

Dr. Rich is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, at Harvard Medical and practices Adolescent Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Rich is also the Founding Director of the first evidence-based medical program addressing physical, mental, and social health issues associated with digital technology, the Clinic for Interactive Media and Internet Disorders​ (CIMAID). As The Mediatrician®, Dr. Rich offers research-based, balanced, and practical answers to parents’, teachers’, and clinicians’ questions about children’s media use and the positive and negative implications for their health and development. Understanding the power of screens to engage, connect, and change us all, he is bringing together pediatricians and software engineers, educators and designers, psychologists, and screenwriters in the Digital Wellness Lab to synergize in researching, responding to, and innovating a digital environment in which we can raise healthy, smart, productive, and kind children.

Dr. Rich came to medicine after a 12-year career as a filmmaker, including apprenticing to Akira Kurosawa as assistant director on Kagemusha. His experience and expertise in medicine and media synergize in his health research and clinical work. Dr. Rich earned his B.A. in English and Film from Pomona College, his M.D. from Harvard Medical School, and his M.P.H. from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Among his many awards are the Society for Adolescent Health and Media (SAHM) New Investigator Award (1978) and the Iris Litt Visiting Professorship in Adolescent Health Research (2017) and the American Academy of Pediatrics Holroyd-Sherry (2005) and Adele Dellenbaugh Hoffman (2017) Awards. See here for recent press

Longer bio and CV can be found here: https://digitalwellnesslab.org/team/michael-rich/​​


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