New AI healthcare challenge offers cash for better outcomes
The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) has launched a prize competition seeking solutions that improve health outcomes through artificial intelligence (AI).
The Applied AI Healthcare Challenge is looking for diverse and practical solutions that will help federal agencies provide high-quality care. The healthcare outcome areas identified in the challenge include mental health; addiction and the opioid epidemic; equity; supply chain and safety; and cancer.
Federal agencies have launched numerous healthcare challenges over the years aiming to find new innovations that can solve some of healthcare’s most complex challenges, such as interoperability. Many of these competitions involve prizes that can incentivize innovators to step forward with their ideas. The Applied AI Healthcare Challenge will award four $25,000 prizes.
Teams are invited to participate in the competition with new and existing AI technologies. The competition is part of the Year of Open Science, which was announced by the Biden administration as the theme for 2023 across many federal agencies with “new actions to advance open and equitable research, including new grant funding, improvements in research infrastructure, broadened research participation for emerging scholars, and expanded opportunities for public engagement,” the White House said in January.
As part of the Applied AI Healthcare Challenges, the Centers of Excellence (CoE) is working in partnership with Challenge.gov, which are both within GSA’s Technology Transformation Services (TTS), a part of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service. Teams of large and small enterprises, women-owned, minority-owned, small disadvantaged and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses to participate are encouraged to enter the competition.
“Technology Transformation Services drives innovation by partnering with technologists in all sectors to identify, demonstrate, test and prove out technology products that improve delivery of government services and benefits, healthcare services and initiatives, centering accessibility, privacy, and customer experience,” TTS Director and FAS Deputy Commissioner Ann Lewis said in a statement. “The Applied AI Healthcare Challenge helps the public and private sector work together to identify promising new AI technology products that support. We are relying on our Open Government and Open Science principles to help the federal government expand its AI capabilities.”
GSA launched its AI Challenges series in April last year, and its first challenge garnered more than 120 participants from public and private sectors. Submissions for this latest challenge are due March 20, 2023, with winners announced May 12, 2023, and up to 16 finalists invited to present at the Applied AI Health Challenge Industry Day on May 2, 2023.
“The Centers of Excellence delivers impact using best practices and technologies from the private sector to meet federal agency needs,” Jennifer Rostami, executive director of the CoE, said in a statement. “This partnership with Challenge.gov is an exciting opportunity for organizations, ranging from startups to nonprofits, to share their innovative AI technologies with the federal government.”
See more about the AI challenge here.
Amy joined TriMed Media as a Senior Writer for HealthExec after covering home care for three years. When not writing about all things healthcare, she fulfills her lifelong dream of becoming a pirate by sailing in regattas and enjoying rum. Fun fact: she sailed 333 miles across Lake Michigan in the Chicago Yacht Club "Race to Mackinac."