Naomi Fried PhD, a national thought leader on healthcare innovation, is founder and CEO of Health Innovation Strategies, a consulting firm specializing in innovation and digital health. She advises pharma companies, payers, and providers on innovation-program design and activities and digital health strategy.
Naomi was previously Biogen’s first VP of Innovation, Medical Information and External Partnerships. She developed Biogen’s “innovation beyond the molecule” strategy to deliver non-pharmacological value to patients and providers.
Prior to Biogen, Naomi was the first Chief Innovation Officer at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH). At BCH, Naomi built and led the Innovation Acceleration Program, which focused on enhancing the innovation culture, improving care quality, and assisting the hospital in shaping the future of health care. The Innovation Acceleration program supported strategic innovation initiatives, resourced grass roots innovation, and identified unmet innovation opportunities. Naomi oversaw the creation and administration of the Innovestment seed grant program which supported 37 projects and the FastTrack Innovation (FIT) in Technology Program which developed 9 novel clinical software solutions and mobile apps. She also initiated and led the development of BCH’s telehealth strategy.
Before moving to the Boston area, Naomi was the VP of Innovation and Advanced Technology at Kaiser Permanente (KP) in Oakland, California, where she led an effort to identify and assess emerging health care technologies and chaired the board of its internal Innovation Fund for Technology. She formed KP’s Telehealth Working Group and was involved in the start-up and governance of KP’s Innovation lab, the Sidney R. Garfield Center for Health Care Innovation. She was the Managing Director of the Archimedes Project.
Naomi has served on the advisory boards of the HealthCare Business Women's Association, MedCity News, Digital Collaboration Solutions, the Journal of Clinical Innovation & Technology, as well as a Director of the American Telemedicine Association. She was also appointed a member of the Governor of Massachusetts’ Innovation Council. Her awards include being named one of WEST’s “Notable Women Entrepreneurs in Science & Technology” in 2013 and one of Healthcare IT News’ “2013 Health Information Technology (HIT) Men and Women of the Year Award, Innovators.” Naomi was named “The Emerging Executive of the Year” in 2014 by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council and was named one of 40 “Healthcare Transformers of 2016” by MM &M. Naomi is on the advisory board of digital health start-ups NQ Medical and ResApp Health. She writes and speaks nationally and internationally on innovation and digital health. Naomi received her Ph.D. in Materials Science from MIT and her B.S. in Chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley.