Blackburn Labs

What Blackburn Labs does

Blackburn Labs builds custom web and mobile applications and data systems. The service list covers bespoke software development, analytics and business intelligence including machine learning and bioinformatics research, website design and development, legacy system modernization, and software and IT project management. Modernization work is described as assessment-first, choosing between rehost, replatform, refactor, or rebuild, with particular depth in healthcare and regulated systems.

The firm was founded in 2015 by Rob Blackburn, who holds both the CEO and CTO titles. The site says he has decades of software engineering experience and has worked with Boston Scientific, Admedus, ProCom Rx, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School. The CMS record notes that Blackburn Labs acquired Trilix's software application division in 2022 and lists a team of 10 to 49.

The site states that all staff are HIPAA certified. The main office is in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, with satellite offices in Providence and Boston. Named technologies include React, Angular, Vue, TypeScript, Node.js, .NET, Java, Python, Swift, Kotlin, React Native, Flutter, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and the AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud platforms.

Pricing and engagement

Blackburn Labs does not publish prices. The CMS record lists $100 to $149 per hour and a minimum project of $25,000 or more. Projects start with a consultation and strategy phase that produces a roadmap, followed by agile delivery. The site says it uses Scrum, test-driven development, and CI/CD pipelines with tools such as Jira, ClickUp, and Trello.

Several testimonials speak to cost and scope. Athens Orthopedic Clinic's COO says the team fit a solution into a tool that would otherwise have been outside budget, and Talerics Consulting's founder credits Rob Blackburn with teaching the client his process. The CMS record flags that a small team limits capacity for several large projects at once and that the firm is not suited to rapid large-scale staffing. Contract terms and support pricing are not disclosed.

Who should hire Blackburn Labs

The strongest fit is a healthcare organization or health startup that needs a HIPAA-aware build and wants the founding engineer in the room. The industry pages name healthcare and life sciences, education technology, real estate, and startups, and the site adds legal, fintech, manufacturing, retail, and nonprofit work.

• Hospitals and clinical teams. CardioCompass was built for Brigham and Women's Hospital to manage hypertension and cholesterol remotely for more than 10,000 Mass General Brigham patients.
• Health startups going from concept to platform, as with Dedica Health's remote patient monitoring system and CurieDx's smartphone image diagnostics.
• Rhode Island and Massachusetts nonprofits and public bodies, including Onward We Learn, Mass211 and United Way, PRCRI, and the Rhode Island Natural History Survey.
• Teams that need data work alongside software, since analytics, BI, and database infrastructure are in-house services.

Who should look elsewhere

Blackburn Labs is a boutique. The CMS record lists 10 to 49 staff and warns that the firm cannot staff several large projects at once. Buyers who need a large team on short notice, or offshore rates, are a poor match.

• Companies wanting marketing, branding, or growth services. Website design is offered, but there is no SEO, advertising, or content practice.
• Buyers who require published pricing or a linked review profile. The site links only to LinkedIn and X, and the Clutch rating cited in the CMS record is not linked from the site.
• Enterprises that need round-the-clock managed services at scale. Maintenance is offered, but the site describes a small senior team rather than a support desk.

Track record and signals

The projects page lists more than 15 builds, mostly in healthcare and education. CardioCompass, a desktop and web platform for Brigham and Women's Hospital, uses an algorithm-driven model to manage hypertension and cholesterol for more than 10,000 patients, processes hundreds of thousands of readings, and is credited with four times better outcomes than traditional care. Dedica Health's remote patient monitoring platform integrates medical devices and runs on React, Node.js, TypeScript, MongoDB, and AWS.

Other named projects include the Welle Training clinical documentation app integrated with EMR systems, 211HELPSteps for Mass211 and United Way, the BORIIS2 biodiversity database for the Rhode Island Natural History Survey, One Track Health for dialysis patients, the After the Storm educational game for FableVision, and Devless, an internal no-code app builder.

The testimonials page carries 17 named quotes, including Ana Mercurio-Pinto of Brigham and Women's, Tom Insprucker of Schneider Electric, Menachem Wakslack of Dedica Health, Therese Canares of CurieDx, and Mindie Meyers of WealthCounsel. The CMS record cites a Clutch Global Leader designation and a 5.0 rating across more than 15 reviews, but no Clutch profile is linked from the site, so those figures are not verified here. Outcome figures are self-reported.

How Blackburn Labs compares

Against other US software agencies in this directory, Blackburn Labs' $100 to $149 hourly range sits in the middle and its $25,000 minimum is typical for a senior US team. Most peers at this rate are larger and route work through account managers, while Blackburn Labs offers founder-level engineering access. Its differences are the HIPAA-trained staff, the hospital case studies, and the long list of named testimonials. Its gaps are limited capacity, no published pricing, and no third-party review profile linked from the site.