Federal AI Challenge Aims to Improve Patient Health Outcomes

Launched by the US General Services Administration (GSA), an artificial intelligence (AI) challenge aims to improve mental health, addiction care, health equity, healthcare supply chain and safety, and cancer outcomes through a competition.

GSA provides centralized procurement and services for the federal government while delivering technology services to serve millions of people across federal agencies.

The GSA announced last week that the Centers for Excellence (CoE) is working with Challenge.gov to recruit organizations with AI technologies to engage in a competition as part of the Year of Open Science.

CoE, housed within GSA Technology Transformation Services (TTS), aims to accelerate IT modernization at federal agencies through private-sector innovation. Also a part of TTS, Challenge.gov assists federal agencies in growing and scaling through prize competitions.

The partnership between CoE and Challenge.gov aims to gather teams to participate in a competition to use AI in supporting medical care.

“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. The Applied AI Healthcare Challenge helps the public and private sector work together to identify promising new AI technology products that support healthcare services and initiatives, centering accessibility, privacy, and customer experience,” said Ann Lewis, TTS director, and the GSA's Federal Acquisition Service deputy commissioner, in a press release. “We are relying on our Open Government and Open Science principles to help the federal government expand its AI capabilities.”

According to challenge.gov, the goal of the challenge is to provide federal agencies with assistance in adopting AI to serve the American healthcare system. The challenge is seeking specific AI technologies to enable federal healthcare service providers to improve processes and outcomes in five areas: mental health, addiction and the opioid epidemic, health equity, medication supply chain and safety, and cancer care.

The competition offers four $25,000 cash prizes. Participants must submit their applications for the challenge before March 20, and winners will be announced on May 12. Also, as many as 16 finalists will be chosen to give presentations at the Applied AI Health Challenge Industry Day on May 2.

“The Centers of Excellence delivers impact using best practices and technologies from the private sector to meet federal agency needs,” said Jennifer Rostami, executive director of the CoE, in the press release. “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.”

The implementation of AI technologies to improve health outcomes is becoming more.

In May 2022, Atlantic Health System and New York-based AI healthcare solutions company Aidoc began a partnership to add an AI imaging solution to assist physicians in expediting care and improving health outcomes.

Through this collaboration, Atlantic Health System added the Aidoc AI tool across its medical centers to enhance critical care, shorten the length of stay, and improve patient outcomes.  The specific capabilities of the Aidoc AI solution include triaging CT scans and providing clinicians with alerts related to critical care situations, including brain hemorrhage, pulmonary embolism, cervical spine fracture, rib fracture, and bowel injury.