INNOVATE Lab at Mass General Brigham for Children

The first 1,000 days of life is an important window for promoting family health and preventing obesity. Our work focuses on designing family-centered, community-based programs to encourage healthy lifestyles from pregnancy through early childhood.

First Heroes

First Heroes is a randomized controlled trial testing a perinatal health intervention for mother-father-infant triads from the second trimester of pregnancy through the first year of life.

We successfully delivered the program to over 100 mothers and fathers, with preliminary results showing positive impacts on paternal health and infant feeding and growth. Final analyses are pending.

First 1,000 Days

The First 1,000 Days Program works with families from prenatal care through a child’s second birthday. The program promotes evidence-based strategies for obesity prevention such as healthy eating, physical activity/active play, adequate sleep, reduced sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, and reduced stress.

Participants had reduced excess gestational weight gain (particularly among those who started pregnancy with overweight), improved health behaviors and lower stress during pregnancy, and healthier infant weight outcomes at 6 and 12 months.

We are actively seeking funding to advance our early life intervention work through the development of the First 1,000 Days for Healthy Generations package in partnership with the American Academy of Pediatrics. This effort aims to expand and scale the program and support a multi-level approach by partnering with community-based organizations.

Learn more about the First 1000 Days Program

We partner with the Greater Boston Food Bank (GBFB)—New England’s largest hunger-relief organization and one of the largest food banks in the country—to conduct research on food insecurity in Massachusetts. Lauren Fiechtner, MD, MPH, serves as a GBFB health and research advisor, overseeing the design and implementation of research evaluations, including their annual statewide surveys on food insecurity.

Since its launch in 2021, the survey has provided critical data on the state’s annual food insecurity levels and the barriers households face in accessing food pantries and federal food assistance programs. The findings have been presented to the Governor’s Food Security Task Force and to the Massachusetts Food System State Caucus, covered by major media outlets including The Boston Globe, and have informed policy responses to pandemic-related food insecurity.

We are currently seeking funding to support the 2025 statewide food insecurity survey.

Learn more about our work with the GBFB

MGH Revere plant-based food pantry "food is medicine" evaluations

Building on her work with the GBFB, Dr. Fiechtner is supporting the MGH Revere Plant-Based Food Pantry (a GBFB member pantry) through funding from the Ardmore Institute of Health and Vitamix Foundation. This project focuses on developing a robust research strategy to inform plant-based food offerings and best their clients.

In partnership with Dr. Allison Wu, Dr. Kieley Chapman, and Dr. Christina Gago, the team is evaluating a teaching kitchen curriculum for families and assessing the health outcomes associated with the receipt of plant-based food distributions.

We are currently seeking funding to continue to study the long-term health and financial benefits of the plant-based food pantry model provided by MGH Revere, with the goal of expanding and adapting successful strategies to other food pantries and food banks.

In the U.S., nearly 20% or 14.1 million children have obesity. Among children from lower-income households, the prevalence is even higher (26%), nearly double that of the highest-income groups (12%).

Childhood obesity has a substantial impact on morbidity, quality of life, and healthcare costs, driving about $14.3 billion in the U.S. It disproportionately affects families from racial and ethnic minority groups and low-income households.

Our obesity intervention research seeks to reduce these disparities by developing and implementing systems-level interventions in pediatric primary care and multidisciplinary treatment settings. We focus on scalable, equitable models of care that reach the families who need them most.

Connect for Health

Connect for Health is a systems-level pediatric weight management program designed to be delivered in primary care settings, ensuring all children have access to comprehensive, supportive care.

We’ve evaluated both the effectiveness and implementation of Connect for Health and adapted the program for telehealth delivery. Our team continues to study how to promote equitable uptake of telehealth services. We are currently working to tailor Connect for Health so clinicians can provide more personalized, context-sensitive care for children facing food and housing insecurity.

We are seeking funding to test the innovative strategies that have been developed as a result of research to date.

Learn more about Connect for Health

Healthy Weight Clinic

The Healthy Weight Clinic (HWC) is a family-centered healthy weight program for children ages 2-18 with a body mass index (BM) at or above the 85th percentile. It was developed by Dr. Fiechtner’s team and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Institute for Healthy Childhood Weight and funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It aligns with recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and the AAP Clinical Practice Guidelines for childhood obesity.

Each clinic includes visits with a multidisciplinary team—a pediatric medical provider, a community health worker, and a registered dietitian—along with group sessions with other families, educational materials, and resources to support long-term health habits.

HWC has demonstrated success in multiple randomized controlled trials, reducing BMI and improving quality of life, parental stress, and binge eating symptoms. The implementation package, developed in partnership with the AAP, has been shown to be feasible, cost-effective, and revenue generating.

We are actively seeking philanthropic support to expand the HWC model. Future research aims to develop and evaluate adaptations for children with comorbidities, such as Down Syndrome or food insecurity.

Learn more about the Healthy Weight Clinic

CHAMPION

Dr. Fiechtner’s team was recently awarded a major grant from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to launch Optimizing Childhood Obesity and Asthma Outcomes in Primary Care via Telehealth (or CHAMPION)—a study evaluating an asthma-informed adaptation of the HWC delivered via telehealth.

The study will compare telehealth and in-person delivery of the combined HWC and Asthma Control Program to determine if both approaches are equally effective in reducing BMI and improving asthma control in children from diverse, lower-income families.

Interested in enrolling? Please contact MGHCHAMPIONstudy@mgb.org to learn more.

Learn more about CHAMPION

Health-promoting lifestyle behaviors play an important role in improving cardiometabolic health, especially for children with endocrine comorbidities related to obesity. Our research examines the delivery and adaptation of physical activity programs in both school-based and clinical settings. We also study the health impacts of physical activity related to diabetes risk and reproductive health, with a specific focus on conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Our goal is to increase the effectiveness of physical activity promotion across these settings.

Pediatric feeding disorders (PFD) can significantly affect a child’s development, nutrition, and overall well-being. Our research examines the influence of PFD on daily life, social participation, and quality of life, as well as the financial burdens and unmet social needs families may face.

This work informs better assessment strategies and treatment approaches to improve care for children and families affected by feeding disorders.