Last fall CMS whittled a field of 300-something entrant teams in its AI Health Outcomes Challenge to 25 semifinalists. This week the agency revealed seven finalist entities, one of which will claim the grand prize of up to $1 million next spring.
The runner-up will fare well too. The payout for second place will be as much as $230,000.
In an Oct. 29 announcement, CMS says this final stage will push those still standing to further refine their already impressive algorithms.
Just getting to the finals puts $60,000 in an entrant entity’s pocket. Here’s the field:
- Ann Arbor Algorithms (Sterling Heights, MI)
- ClosedLoop.ai (Austin, TX)
- Deloitte Consulting, LLP (Arlington, VA)
- Geisinger (Danville, PA)
- Jefferson Health (Philadelphia, PA)
- Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. (Princeton, NJ)
- University of Virginia Health System (Charlottesville, VA)
The top finishers from among these will excel at demonstrating the utility of AI tools for predicting unplanned admissions and adverse events at hospitals and skilled nursing facilities.
In addition, the winner will have done the best job of developing predictive algorithms for a standard target to be selected by CMS, as the agency puts it in the announcement.
Commenting on the announcement, CMS Administrator Seema Verma says that President Trump “recognizes that the complexity and growth of data in healthcare holds the potential to transform healthcare, and AI is the key to manage and analyze that data.”
The competition launched in March of 2019. Project leaders named the 25 finalists last November.
For an updated challenge overview from CMS, click here.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.