“Artificial Intelligence is a vehicle that can help drive our system to value—proven to reduce out-of-pocket costs and improve quality,” CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in a prepared statement. “It holds the potential to revolutionize healthcare: imagine a doctor being able to predict health outcomes—such as a hospital admission—and to intervene before an illness strikes. The participants in our AI Challenge demonstrate that such possibilities will soon be within reach. We congratulate the 25 innovators who have been selected to continue, and we look forward to seeing what else they have in store.”   

A team of “data science experts, healthcare data specialists and clinical care providers” helped determine which 25 participants would advance to stage 1 of the competition. In 2020, as many as seven participants will move on to stage 2 and receive $60,000 each. The winner of the challenge will receive $1 million, with the runner-up receiving $230,000.