Dr. Newbower co-chaired the MGH Strategic Planning Committee over twelve years ago that formulated the need for a Center to connect technologists with clinicians more effectively in the pursuit of cost-effective innovations in medical devices and systems. Based on their findings he and Dr. John Parrish then proposed and co-founded CIMIT – the Center for Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technology, ten years ago. Together they built the team that grew CIMIT into a highly successful consortium to fill that identified need. Founding members included MIT, Mass General Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory. Since then most other major Harvard-affiliated academic medical centers and well as Boston University and BUMC have joined CIMIT as affiliate members. Its mission is to catalyze interdisciplinary technology innovations that impact healthcare in cost-effective ways. CIMIT currently sponsors or facilitates over 150 innovative projects, and has many success stories in its portfolio.

Dr. Newbower formerly served as Vice President of Research Management for Partners HealthCare System, and, from 1989 to 2005, as the Senior Vice President for Research and Technology for the Massachusetts General Hospital. In those dual roles he oversaw the operation of Partners’ unique biomedical research program, which included $450 million per year of sponsored research at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and $350 million per year at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. As a member of the Partners HealthCare Senior Management executive team, he was involved in a broad range of issues as this unique healthcare enterprise adjusted to its rapidly changing environment, and as it developed its leadership role as an integrated healthcare system. In addition he has led or participated in several strategic planning task forces for MGH, BWH, McLean and Spaulding, within Partners, and for their academic interactions with MIT, Harvard, and the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology (HST). It was during that time that he collaborated with Dr. Parrish in developing the concept of CIMIT, marshalling support for it and building its core team. Upon stepping down from his MGH and Partners administrative positions, he joined CIMIT full-time in his current role.

Earlier in his career Dr. Newbower led the MGH Anesthesia Bioengineering Unit, which conducted pioneering rigorous studies of human error in medical care, leading to adoption of technologies and standards of care that ultimately reduced the consequences of error in anesthesia and in critical-care medicine dramatically. He led the development of many innovative medical-instrumentation systems and physiologic-monitoring devices, several of which led to products sold worldwide as well as to important changes in clinical care. Subsequently, he built and directed MGH’s academic Department of Biomedical Engineering, while continuing to lead many research and development efforts in biomedical technologies and systems.

Dr. Newbower has a PhD in Solid-State Physics from Harvard, and a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from MIT. His honors in the field of instrumentation include the Arnold O. Beckman Award for Innovation from the Instrumentation Society of America, the AAMI Becton-Dickinson Career Achievement Award, election as a Fellow in the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, as well as senior elected positions in the IEEE and BMES. He holds faculty appointments at MIT in Electrical Engineering, and in HMS and HST in Anesthesia and Bioengineering. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of the Forsyth Research Institute in Boston.