The Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) have announced a Patient Matching Algorithm Challenge, offering as many as six prizes of $75,000 to find the most accurate tool to eliminate data duplication in electronic medical records (EMRs).

Redundant patient information within an EMR system can lead to inaccuracies in data and medication. The challenge asks participants to create an algorithm capable of identifying duplicated and incorrect data.

Participants will be asked to test their algorithms on a data set provided by ONC and submit results to a scoring server. Participants results will be graded with objective evaluation metrics (F-scores) to provide algorithm improvements. Top F-scores will be placed on a leader board and the top six algorithm entries with best recall, precision and performance will be awarded a prize of $75,000.

Webinars regarding challenge information will be held May 10, 17 and 24.