Kaiser Permanente Awards Funding for Healthcare AI, ML Research

The Kaiser Permanente Augmented Intelligence in Medicine and Healthcare Initiative (AIM-HI) Coordinating Center has awarded grant funding to five projects that explore how artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can improve patient care.

AIM-HI, which supports national research efforts focused on healthcare AI and ML, awarded each of the five winners up to $750,000. Grants are supported via funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and will be used to demonstrate the real-world clinical value of these technologies.

The program received over 120 applications across various health AI and ML use cases, including predictive analytics, large language models, and computer vision.

“Given the tremendous excitement about AI and ML to improve patient care and outcomes, I was not surprised to see vigorous interest in AIM-HI,” said Vincent Liu, MD, principal investigator of AIM-HI, a Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research (DOR) research scientist, and intensivist physician with The Permanente Medical Group, in the press release. “Choosing from among a large number of innovative and impactful projects was really challenging. Ultimately, we selected a balanced portfolio that addresses real-world challenges across diverse technologies, health care settings, and patient groups.”

The five grant recipients are:

• “Generalizing an AI/ML Model for Pediatric Asthma Care in Safety Net Health Settings,” led by Cesar Termulo, Jr., MD, from Parkland Health in Dallas, Texas;
• “High Throughput Precision Identification of Cardiac Amyloidosis in a Diverse Population,” led by David Ouyang, MD, from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California;
• “Precision Resuscitation with Crystalloids in Sepsis (the PRECISE trial),” led by Sivasubramanium Bhavani, MD, MS, from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia;
• “Diabetic Retinopathy Screening Point-of-Care Artificial Intelligence,” led by Fatima Munoz, MD, MPH, from San Ysidro Health in San Diego, California;
• “Advancing Novel Approaches and Best Practices for Effective AI-Enabled Diagnosis using Randomized Trials, Algorithmovigilance, and Proactive Risk Assessment,” led by Peter J. Embí, MD, MS, from Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

Each grant covers a three-year project period, and grantees will also receive support from the AIM-HI Coordinating Center and AIM-HI Advisory Committee.

“These impressive and diverse projects are at the forefront of AI innovation and effective deployment,” stated Stephen M. Parodi, MD, executive vice president, The Permanente Federation and The Permanente Medical Group. “All 5 hold promise to improve medicine’s capability to bring these cutting-edge technologies to responsibly improve patient outcomes.”

These investments come as stakeholders grapple with balancing health AI innovation and ethics.

Last week, at the 2023 Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) Annual Meeting, a group of 28 payers and providers signed a pledge to advance the ethical and responsible use of AI in healthcare.

The pledge is a voluntary commitment, under which the participating organizations agree to help align industry efforts around these technologies with the air, appropriate, valid, effective, and safe (FAVES) principles, which were outlined in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Health Data, Technology, and Interoperability: Certification Program Updates, Algorithm Transparency, and Information Sharing (HTI-1) rule.

Each provider and payer will also work to develop AI tools aimed at optimizing healthcare delivery, advancing health equity, and expanding care access and affordability.