The Children's Hospitals Neonatal Consortium (CHNC)

What The Children's Hospitals Neonatal Consortium (CHNC) does

The Children's Hospitals Neonatal Consortium (CHNC) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2010 and headquartered in Dover, Delaware, that unites more than 50 top children's hospitals in the United States and Canada to improve care for medically complex neonates and infants treated in Level IV neonatal intensive care units. CHNC's operational backbone is the Children's Hospitals Neonatal Database (CHND), a multicenter data registry launched in 2010 with the Children's Hospital Association; CHND has accumulated data on more than 380,000 NICU admissions and underpins benchmarking, multicenter research, and quality improvement activities. Around CHND, CHNC runs topic-specific focus groups (Cardiac, CDH, ECMO, NEC, sBPD, HIE, and others), the Collaborative Initiatives for Quality Improvement (CIQI) program (which has produced demonstrable outcomes including a 20% CLABSI reduction in the SLUG Bug collaborative and 94% of centers achieving improvement scores), an annual Symposium held in Denver, the CIQI Fellowship for QI training, and educational video resources.

CHNC's business model is membership-based: it is funded by dues from participating children's hospitals, supplemented by educational program and event revenues, with no equity investors, funding rounds, or external shareholders involved. The primary customer segment is quaternary and tertiary children's hospital NICUs and the multidisciplinary clinical workforce within them — neonatologists, advanced practice providers, neonatal nurses, quality and safety leaders, data coordinators, pediatric subspecialists, trainees, anesthesiologists, and pediatric surgeons. All 10 hospitals on the 2025 USNWR Honor Roll list of top children's hospitals are participating CHNC sites, and the consortium's research output stands at 129 peer-reviewed publications. CHNC's only named software product is the CHNC Events Application for symposium management; the database, focus groups, and collaboratives are service offerings rather than packaged software.

Name

The Children's Hospitals Neonatal Consortium (CHNC)

Legal name

Children's Hospitals Neonatal Consortium

Website

https://thechnc.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

CHNC is a non-profit consortium of 50+ top children's hospitals that operates the Children's Hospitals Neonatal Database and quality improvement collaboratives to advance care for medically complex neonates in Level IV NICUs across the US and Canada.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Neonatal Healthcare Quality Improvement Consortium

NAICS

General Medical and Surgical Hospitals (622110)

SIC

Services-Hospitals (8060)

akta.pro primary industry

Neonatal Intensive Care & Special Care Nurseries (NICU/SCN) (HLAFAJAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

Census, Demographic & Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) (HLAJAJAH)

Keywords

• Neonatal intensive care
• Clinical data registry
• Quality improvement collaboratives
• Pediatric research consortium
• Multicenter clinical research

Headquarters

HQ city

Dover

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Membership Dues and Collaborations: Non-profit 501(c)(3) organization funded through membership fees from participating hospitals, grants, and potentially educational program revenues

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

CHNC operates a multicenter consortium network of 50+ top children's hospitals with Level IV NICUs, centered on the Children's Hospitals Neonatal Database (CHND), a clinical data registry and analytics platform capturing 380,000+ NICU admissions. The consortium delivers topic-specific research focus groups, multicenter quality improvement collaboratives (SLUG Bug, STEPP-IN, ERASE Post Op Pain, Project HOMe), an annual symposium, and a CIQI fellowship program for neonatal professionals.

Product overview

CHNC is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization comprising over 50 children's hospitals that provides a collaborative network for neonatal intensive care quality improvement. The core offering is the Children's Hospitals Neonatal Database (CHND), a multicenter data registry that enables participating NICUs to share data, benchmark outcomes, and conduct collaborative research. CHNC supplements the database with topic-specific Focus Groups (such as Cardiac, CDH, ECMO, NEC, sBPD, HIE, and others) that drive research priorities, and the CIQI program that provides infrastructure for quality improvement collaboratives. Additional offerings include the CHNC Events Application for symposium management, the annual CHNC Symposium for education and networking, the CIQI Fellowship for professional training, and Educational Videos resources. The CHNC Events app is the only named software product; the database and research programs are service offerings rather than packaged software products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Children's Hospitals Neonatal Database (CHND) Multicenter clinical data registry and analytics platform capturing patient data from Level IV NICUs at children's hospitals to support benchmarking, quality improvement, and multicenter research across the consortium.
• Collaborative Initiatives for Quality Improvement (CIQI) Structured quality improvement program providing infrastructure for NICUs to implement, study, and benchmark care interventions through multicenter collaboratives targeting specific clinical outcomes.
• CHNC Annual Symposium Annual educational conference hosted in Denver that highlights consortium research, provides continuing education, and supports networking and collaboration among neonatal care professionals.
• CHNC Focus Groups Condition-specific research and quality improvement groups covering Cardiac, CDH, ECMO, NEC, sBPD, HIE, and other neonatal conditions, coordinating multicenter studies and clinical initiatives.
• CIQI Fellowship Fellowship program designed to train neonatal professionals in quality improvement methodologies, collaborative research practices, and consortium-based care improvement.

Quantifiable outcome

• CLABSI rates decreased by 20% during 12-month study period through SLUG Bug quality improvement collaborative
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Children's Hospital AssociationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCHNC partnered with the Children's Hospital Association to develop the Children's Hospitals Neonatal Database (CHND), launched in 2010. This collaboration enables multicenter data collection and benchmarking across regional NICUs.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• National Pediatric Cardiology Quality Improvement Collaborative: NPC-QIC is a multi-center collaborative of pediatric cardiology centers focused on improving outcomes for children with congenital heart disease through shared data and QI. Like CHNC, it uses a consortium model with topic-specific registries and benchmarking for medically complex pediatric populations.
• Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS): PHIS is a comparative pediatric database administered by the Children's Hospital Association containing clinical and resource utilization data from over 50 children's hospitals. It overlaps with CHNC's CHND in data infrastructure and member base but focuses on inpatient administrative and resource data.
• Children's Oncology Group: Children's Oncology Group is a National Cancer Institute-supported clinical trials cooperative group uniting children's hospitals to research and improve pediatric cancer treatment. It mirrors CHNC's consortium model, multicenter data infrastructure, and pediatric hospital focus, but in the oncology specialty.
• Improving Renal Outcomes Collaborative (IROC): IROC is a multi-center learning health network for pediatric kidney disease across children's hospitals, using shared data registries and QI collaboratives. It is structurally analogous to CHNC's consortium and registry model, applied to a different pediatric sub-specialty.
• Solutions for Patient Safety (SPS): SPS is a children's hospital collaborative focused on reducing pediatric hospital-acquired harm through shared data and best practices. It uses a comparable consortium-based QI model with children's hospitals, paralleling CHNC's approach but focused on broader patient safety events rather than NICU-specific care.
• Vermont Oxford Network: Vermont Oxford Network is a nonprofit collaborative of NICUs focused on improving the quality, safety, and value of newborn care through data, research, and QI. Like CHNC, it operates a multicenter database and benchmarking platform for neonatal outcomes, making it the most directly comparable peer.

Others

• American Academy of Pediatrics: The American Academy of Pediatrics is the leading professional association for pediatricians, producing neonatal care guidelines, research, and quality initiatives. It is thematically related to CHNC's evidence-based neonatal care mission but serves as a broader professional body rather than a direct data/QI competitor.

Broad incumbents

• NICHD Neonatal Research Network: The NICHD Neonatal Research Network is an NIH-funded multicenter network of academic neonatal centers conducting clinical trials and observational research. It overlaps with CHNC's research mission in Level III/IV NICUs but operates under federal funding with a different governance model.
• Children's Hospital Association: The Children's Hospital Association represents over 220 children's hospitals and is CHNC's strategic partner in co-developing the CHND registry. CHA is a broader-incumbent pediatric healthcare organization with overlapping membership and data initiatives across multiple pediatric sub-specialties.

Emerging players

• Epic Cosmos: Epic Cosmos is a de-identified patient dataset aggregated across Epic's hospital customers, including many children's hospitals. While not a pediatric-specific consortium, it represents an emerging large-scale clinical data platform that could partially substitute for CHNC's CHND benchmarking capabilities.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/thechnc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about The Children's Hospitals Neonatal Consortium (CHNC)