Virginia Tech, Children’s National Hospital, and industry experts explore the impact of AI on health care

Thought leaders from academia and medical practice explored how artificial intelligence (AI) can advance children’s health care at the second annual Children’s National Hospital-Virginia Tech Symposium on AI for Pediatric Health at the Children’s National Research & Innovation Campus in Washington, D.C.

Rowland Illing, chief medical officer and director of international public sector health at Amazon Web Services (AWS), discussed the transformative impact of AI, machine learning, and cloud technology.

As a radiologist, Illing highlighted the example of how these tools enable clinicians to interpret screenings more quickly and accurately, addressing the growing global demand for faster diagnoses, better patient outcomes, and broader access to medical expertise.

He also highlighted the importance of collaboration to drive these advances.

“Incorporating AI into pediatric care isn’t just about technology. Successful implementation of sophisticated technology into the health care system requires strategic partnerships with like-minded organizations to identify challenges and create solutions,” Illing said. “The collaboration between Children’s National and Virginia Tech couples deep clinical expertise with cutting edge technology research. These two organizations, powered by AWS as the world’s most secure and resilient computing platform, will accelerate health care innovation to improve efficiency of the health system and outcomes for patients.”

Combined efforts between Virginia Tech and Children’s National are already yielding tangible results, said conference co-director Naren Ramakrishnan, director of the Sanghani Center for Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics and the Thomas L. Phillips Professor in the Virginia Tech College of Engineering. 

Ramakrishnan emphasized the importance of expertise when integrating AI into pediatric health care.

“To effectively deploy technologies like generative AI in pediatric medicine, we must ensure that those interpreting the outputs are well-trained and deeply knowledgeable in the field,” Ramakrishnan said. “While the potential is immense, we can’t rely on AI-generated results without proper safeguards in place.”

Conference co-director Marius George Linguraru of Children’s National highlighted the importance of training both pediatric specialists and AI systems to address the distinct needs of young patients, who require tailored approaches.

“Artificial intelligence is becoming a vital companion to physicians, enhancing their abilities to deliver specialized care,” said Linguraru, the Connor Family Professor in Research and Innovation and principal investigator in the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation. “In pediatric care, we train pediatric specialists because kids suffer from different diseases than adults. Children also suffer from very impactful and rare conditions. As AI becomes integral to enhancing specialized care in pediatrics, it is crucial that we approach its development with the same rigor as training our medical specialists.”

During the symposium, representatives from five teams, combining Virginia Tech and Children’s National researchers, presented updates on research projects funded by grants from the Sanghani Center, Virginia Tech Innovation Campus, Children’s National, and the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC

The projects featured the development and use of technologies such as federated learning, multimodal foundation models, forecasting, and generative AI in pediatric health contexts.

As discussion continued, collaboration remained a central theme.

"We're incredibly motivated as a research-focused university to collaborate and unlock the power of strategic partnerships with clinical institutions and health networks,” said Christopher Hourigan, professor and director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute Cancer Research Center in Washington, D.C. Heis also with the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. “Our goal is to create productive synergies that translate not only from bench to bedside, but also from bedside to bench. One of the most important partnerships we have is with Children’s National, and I’m delighted to see a tangible example of our collaboration here today. We’re working together not just for our mutual benefit, but for the greater good."

Innovation Campus Vice President and Executive Director Lance Collins underscored the importance of sharing goals and building relationships.

“Our new Virginia Tech Innovation Campus in Alexandria was born from an economic development initiative with a strong focus on building partnerships and engagement with corporations, federal agencies, and nonprofits, like Children’s National Hospital,” Collins said. “Collaboration is truly part of our DNA, and we aim to foster meaningful connections that drive innovation. There’s a lot on the horizon, and we’re eager to work together to shape the future.”

In addition to the ongoing collective efforts, the symposium marked the participation of Sally Allain as Virginia Tech's new chief of health sciences growth and innovation officer. Allain will lead the growth of academic health sciences research at Virginia Tech by building strategic industry partnerships and facilitating the commercialization of discoveries.

The Virginia Tech-Children’s National collaboration originated when Michael Friedlander, vice president for health sciences and technology at Virginia Tech and executive director of the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute, introduced the leadership of the Sanghani Center to teams at Children's National Hospital. 

“Looking ahead, our goal is to push the boundaries of what’s possible through continued innovation and collaboration at the very frontiers of knowledge and tools for powerful new approaches to data analytics and applications,” Friedlander said. “The involvement of Virginia Tech’s world-class talent in computer science and computer engineering both at its Innovation Campus in Alexandria and from the main campus in Blacksburg in the growing partnership with Children’s National represents a major force multiplier for good. The synergy between Virginia Tech and Children’s National is just the beginning. By combining our strengths and leveraging emerging technologies, we are not only advancing pediatric care, but also setting a new standard for how research institutions and health care providers can work together to solve the complex challenges of tomorrow.”