The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced seven finalists who will advance to the final round of the Artificial Intelligence Health Outcomes Challenge. This multi-stage competition launched last year with more than 300 entities proposing AI solutions for predicting patient health outcomes aimed at revolutionizing healthcare for potential use by the CMS Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. In this last stage of the competition, the seven finalists will further develop algorithms that demonstrate how AI tools can be used to predict unplanned hospital and skilled nursing facility admissions and adverse events, and also will develop predictive algorithms for a standard target to be selected by CMS. CMS will announce the Grand Prize winner (who will receive up to $1 million in prize money) and Runner-Up (who will receive up to $230,000 in prize money) by the end of April 2021.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services this week announced the 25 participants selected to move on to the next round of its Artificial Intelligence Health Outcomes Challenge. WHY IT MATTERS Launched this past March by the CMS Innovation Center, in collaboration with the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, the AI Health Outcomes Challenge aims to give innovators a showcase for how they're developing AI and machine learning technologies, deep learning tools and neural networks. While the focus is on helping hospitals and health systems drive cost efficiencies for value based reimbursement, prevent adverse patient safety events and boost quality outcomes, CMS put out the call innovators from all sectors of the economy – not just from healthcare. More than 300 different organizations submitted proposals. They were evaluated by a group of data science experts, clinical informaticists and care providers. A CMS selection panel then chose 25 of the applicants to advance to Stage 1.

How can AI tools--such as deep learning and neural networks--be used to predict unplanned hospital and skilled nursing facility admissions and adverse events? In the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Health Outcomes Challenge, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is dangling up to $1.65 million in prize money to the innovators who can figure it out. Six hospitals and health systems are among the 25 participants who were selected from a field of more than 300 submissions. The ultimate goal is to harness AI solutions to predict health outcomes for healthcare providers and clinicians, as well as potential use in CMS Innovation Center innovative payment and service delivery models. "Artificial Intelligence is a vehicle that can help drive our system to value--proven to reduce out-of-pocket costs and improve quality," said CMS Administrator Seema Verma in a news release.