InStride Health Wins Mental Health Innovation Award in 2026 MedTech Breakthrough Awards Program

BOSTON, May 7, 2026 – InStride Health, the leading provider of specialty mental health care for youth with complex anxiety, OCD, and related disorders, has been named the winner of the Mental Health Innovation Award in the 2026 MedTech Breakthrough Awards program. Conducted by MedTech Breakthrough, an independent market intelligence organization focused on digital health and medical technology, the program recognizes top companies, technologies and products worldwide.

InStride Health was recognized for its virtual care model designed to treat moderate to severe pediatric anxiety and OCD. At the core of InStride’s model is a dedicated care team for each patient, including a psychiatrist, therapist and exposure coach, who guide treatment based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), the gold standard treatment for anxiety and OCD. Their virtual approach enables care teams to support young people      beyond traditional weekly sessions, providing coaching during real-world exposures while coordinating with caregivers, schools and other members of a child’s support system.

Supporting this care model is InStride’s purpose-built AI tools, trained on domain-specific data to drive increasingly personalized care for families. Over the past year, the company has enhanced AI capabilities to better support clinical decision-making and care coordination, helping ensure consistent, high-quality care delivery.

"Too many young people with anxiety and OCD are falling through the cracks of a system that was never designed for the complexity of their needs,” said Kathryn Boger, Ph.D., ABPP, co-founder and Chief Clinical Officer of InStride Health. “We're reimagining how specialty mental health care gets delivered, combining world-class clinical expertise with AI-powered tools that make coordinated, real-world care possible at scale. This recognition reflects the outcomes we’re delivering: helping young people build the skills to get back to living their lives.”     

The mission of the MedTech Breakthrough Awards is to honor excellence and recognize innovation across a range of health and medical technology categories      including telehealth, patient engagement, and digital health platforms. This year’s program attracted thousands of nominations from organizations around the world, underscoring the significance of InStride Health’s recognition in advancing pediatric mental health care.

About InStride Health:

InStride Health is the leading provider of specialty mental health care for youth with complex anxiety, OCD, and related disorders—one of the fastest-growing and most underserved areas in healthcare. Spun out of the nation’s top-ranked psychiatric hospital, InStride translates decades of clinical research into a scalable, real-world care model that delivers evidence-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and exposure therapy virtually, supported by a dedicated team of psychiatrists, therapists, and exposure coaches. This care model is enhanced by AI tools trained on a proprietary, domain-specific dataset that compounds with every patient, driving increasingly personalized care and improving outcomes over time. The company partners closely with parents, schools, and external providers, coordinating across settings to provide surround sound skills that enable graduation from specialty care.

InStride is in-network with most major commercial insurance plans, and patients typically connect with a clinician within days and begin treatment within weeks.  Now operating across 17 states with a repeatable, payer-backed model, InStride is scaling nationwide to help young people reclaim their lives from anxiety and OCD. Learn more at www.instride.health.     

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Media Contact:

Matt Miller V2 Communications Instride@v2comms.com