Michael Rich

professor, pediatrics, Harvard Medical School

Michael Rich, MD, MPH is recognized globally for his acclaimed work as a pediatrician, child health researcher, and children’s media specialist. He is the Founder and Director of the Digital Wellness Lab which is on a mission to understand and promote positive and healthy digital media experiences for young people, from birth through young adulthood.

Dr. Rich is also the Founder and Co-Director of the Clinic for Interactive Media and Internet Disorders (CIMAID), the first evidence-based clinical program designed to address Problematic Interactive Media Use (PIMU) in children, adolescents, and young adults. Using a multidisciplinary approach, Dr. Rich works with young people and their families to help them to adopt and sustain healthy approaches to engaging with interactive media and technology.

More than 50 peer-reviewed research papers, and 40 book chapters, research reports, and pediatric practice policies have been authored by Dr. Rich. He has written policy statements on media and child health for the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and testified on the scientific findings about media effects on child development and health to state legislatures, the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Congress.

Having spent his first career as a filmmaker working in Japan with Akira Kurosawa, before transitioning to medicine, Dr. Rich has a unique combination of experience and expertise in medicine and media, which synergize in his health research and clinical work. As “the Mediatrician”, Dr. Rich recently released The Mediatrician’s Guide: A Joyful Approach to Raising Healthy, Smart, Kind Kids in a Screen-Saturated World, a science-backed approach to give parents the confidence they need to raise a child well (and to raise a well child) in the digital age.