CMS Selects Top 25 Participants to Advance to Stage 1 of the CMS Artificial Intelligence (AI) Health Outcomes Challenge

CMS Selects Top 25 Participants to Advance to Stage 1 of the CMS Artificial Intelligence (AI) Health Outcomes Challenge

Today, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the Top 25 Participants selected to advance to Stage 1 of the CMS Artificial Intelligence (AI) Health Outcomes Challenge. These Participants will demonstrate how AI tools – such as deep learning and neural networks – can be used to predict unplanned hospital and skilled nursing facility admissions and adverse events.

More than 300 entities submitted proposed AI solutions to the CMS AI Health Outcomes Challenge. Based on established criteria, a group of technical evaluators comprised of data science experts, healthcare data specialists, and clinical care providers evaluated the applications, after which a CMS Selection Panel chose 25 Participants to advance to Stage 1 of the Challenge. From these 25 Participants, up to seven will move on as Finalists to Stage 2, be awarded up to $60,000 each, and receive an opportunity to further refine their algorithms and solutions using additional CMS data sets. CMS will announce the Stage 2 Finalists in 2020. At the conclusion of the Challenge, a grand prize winner will receive up to $1 million, and the runner-up will receive up to $230,000.

The CMS AI Health Outcomes Challenge began as an open innovation challenge to develop technology that can be used to predict unplanned hospital and skilled nursing facility admissions, and adverse events within 30 days. This Challenge was launched in March 2019 by the CMS Innovation Center in collaboration with the American Academy of Family Physicians and Arnold Ventures. The AI Health Outcomes Challenge engages with innovators from all sectors – not just from healthcare – to harness artificial intelligence solutions to predict health outcomes. The Challenge aims to develop AI-driven predictions that healthcare providers and clinicians participating in CMS Innovation Center models could use to improve health outcomes.

More information on the CMS AI Health Outcomes Challenge, including a list of selected Stage 1 participants, is available at go.cms.gov/AI.