Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Announce Winners of the VaxUp Innovation Challenge

The Innovation Studio at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), in partnership with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH), has selected three teams as the winners of the VaxUp Innovation Challenge, the culmination of a three-month program to generate, test and scale creative solutions to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates among children and teens in Los Angeles County. These teams will receive $75,000 each in grants to further develop and pilot their solution in Los Angeles County.

“The VaxUp Innovation Challenge is a prime example of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles’s commitment to further its mission beyond the walls of our hospital and impact the health of our greater community,” says Omkar Kulkarni, Chief Innovation Officer at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “CHLA is thrilled to be working alongside the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to help break down barriers to vaccination and to increase vaccine confidence among LA County’s youth, adolescents and their parents, particularly in communities disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.”

The winning teams selected for the VaxUp Innovation Challenge are:

Kedren Community Health Center: Kedren Community Health Center’s VaxUp solution builds upon their expansive work of providing over 300,000 COVID-19 vaccines to the community and focuses on increasing vaccinations for children ages 5-11 in LA County through free, fun and immersive family-friendly events that provide COVID-19 awareness and health education at mobile vaccine clinics.

Northeast Valley Health Corporation: The Northeast Valley Health Corporation (NEVHC) aims to resolve pediatric COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy without creating more work or burnout for health care providers through the use of motivational interviewing techniques.Following a vaccine readiness assessment administered electronically to patients and families, clinical staff will use the data from the assessment and a COVID-19 vaccine persona-based algorithm to tailor motivational interviewing techniques specific to the patient family’s readiness to accept the vaccine. NEVHC will train partner organizations and Federally Qualified Health Centers in LA County in motivational interviewing techniques and provide patients with incentives and follow-up text messages and videos to encourage COVID-19 vaccine acceptance.

MiVacunaLA: MiVacuna is an evidence-based digital outreach program designed to inform and empower Latinx families when making the decision to vaccinate their children for COVID-19. Not only will the pilot enroll 600 Latinx parents with at least one unvaccinated child in a four-week program where they will receive reliable information via text messages, but it will also train 20 Latinx parent ambassadors with at least one vaccinated child to recruit non-vaccinated families and share credible vaccine information in their communities.

“Congratulations to the three winners of the VaxUp Innovation Challenge, and thanks to all the teams who participated in the challenge for sharing their innovative ideas of how to increase access to vaccines,” says Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “Vaccines remain highly effective at preventing severe illness, and partnering with the Innovation Studio at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles on the VaxUp Innovation Challenge has inspired and accelerated ideas to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates among children, particularly in the under-served communities of Los Angeles County. We look forward to continuing our partnerships with community organizations and CHLA as we work together to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates.”

The VaxUp Innovation Challenge encouraged nonprofit and for-profit organizations to submit bold, creative ideas that address the barriers and challenges to vaccinating young people in LA County. The first phase of the challenge was a two-day virtual “Idea-a-Thon” held in February. Out of the 141 individuals from 48 different organizations that participated, 16 teams were selected to move on to the second phase, where each team received a $5,000 grant and one month to research their target audience and generate a prototype. A diverse panel of reviewers, including CHLA medical experts, public health experts from LACDPH, digital health and innovation industry experts, and teenagers from the community, selected 10 teams to move on to the final phase, in which each team received a $20,000 grant and one month to develop a pilot plan, identify local organizations to partner with, and integrate their solutions into their communities. In April, these 10 teams presented their pilot to the review panel, who selected the winning teams.

The three winning teams’ solutions demonstrate innovativeness, high feasibility, strong potential for impact on pediatric COVID-19 vaccination rates, and potential for sustainability and scale. Additionally, the winning teams illustrate exceptional understanding of the Los Angeles community and local context and have established themselves as trusted partners in the community. Over the coming months, the winning teams will use their grant award towards piloting their solution within the community.

About Children’s Hospital Los Angeles

Founded in 1901, Children's Hospital Los Angeles is the largest provider of care for children in Los Angeles County. Families travel from all 50 states and more than 90 countries so that their children can receive the very best care. The hospital’s clinical teams treat patients ranging in age from newborn infants to young adults for everything from well-child visits to organ transplantation. It is ranked the top children’s hospital in California as well as in the Pacific region, and fifth in the nation for clinical excellence by U.S. News & World Report in its prestigious Honor Roll of Best Children’s Hospitals. Clinical care is led by physicians who are faculty members of the Keck School of Medicine of USC through an affiliation dating from 1932. It is home to the largest pediatric residency training program at a freestanding children’s hospital of its kind in the western United States. Among top 10 children’s hospitals for National Institutes of Health funding, The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles leads the field in innovative bench-to-bedside basic, translational and clinical research conducted in pediatrics. To learn more, follow us on  Facebook,  Instagram,  LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter, and visit our blog at  CHLA.org/blog.