Center on Media and Child Health

The Center on Media and Child Health (CMCH) is a non-profit organization based at Boston Children’s Hospital. CMCH was founded in 2002, by Michael Rich, pediatrician; Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School; and Associate Professor of Society, Human Development, and Health at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Mission.
CMCH conducts scientific research to improve the understanding of media influence and provide evidence-based expertise to initiatives and programs that address children's involvement with media.
Research.
CMCH researchers investigate correlations between media use and children’s physical and mental health outcomes, measuring media exposure in youth. Combining techniques of momentary sampling and video capture, this method is more sensitive to the variety of media used, more responsive to media multitasking, and more accurate in its capture of both media content and usage time.
CMCH researchers have developed the Video Intervention/Prevention Assessment (VIA) method, a research method which allows children and teen patients the opportunity to create video diaries about living with an illness. These videos can be used to teach physicians more about the realities of various conditions. CMCH maintains a database of scientific studies on how media effects children’s health. David Bickham has researched the role of television viewing and social isolation. CMCH has also been involved in research which addresses the media education of pediatric residents.