The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced that ClosedLoop.ai is the winner of its multistage Artificial Intelligence Health Outcomes Challenge “Why it Matters”. The company will collect a $1 million prize for its algorithms designed to predict unplanned hospitalizations and adverse events. Geisinger was declared runner-up and will get $230,000.
- AI-powered health predictions: The challenge developed by the CMS Innovation Center to find new AI-powered approaches to predicting health outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries initially drew more than 300 entries from across all industries, including Accenture, Deloitte, Geisinger, IBM, Mayo Clinic, and Merck. These were first winnowed to a top 25 and then to seven finalists.
- AI usage in healthcare facilities: As the grand prize winner, Austin, Texas-based ClosedLoop.ai will receive up to $1 million in prize money. Danville, Pennsylvania-based Geisinger was the runner-up and will receive up to $230,000.Both organizations were recognized by CMS for their AI and machine learning tools to predict unplanned hospitalizations, skilled nursing facility admissions, and adverse events. They each created predictive algorithms well to identify Medicare beneficiaries at risk of mortality in 12 months.
- Latest innovations for patients betterment: “Clinicians are eager to use the latest innovations to better help identify patients at risk, provide higher quality care, and improve health outcomes,” said CMS Acting Administrator Liz Richter in a statement. “The use of artificial intelligence has the potential to achieve these aims by providing important information to clinicians that may be helpful in providing higher quality care.”
- Collaboration for future healthcare: The competition, in collaboration with the AAFP and Arnold Ventures, was launched in 2019 with the aim of accelerating the development of AI solutions for predicting patient health outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries for potential use by the Innovation Center. Of $1.65 million in total prizes to participants, Arnold Ventures will contribute up to $300,000 and the AAFP is contributing up to $340,000.
- A smooth clinical workflow: “Our Patient Health Forecasts were key to winning the Challenge. We reimagined the entire concept into a comprehensive and personalized risk forecast that could be delivered directly into a clinical workflow,” said ClosedLoop CTO and co-founder Dave DeCaprio in a statement. “Each forecast surfaces key variables and explains precisely how they contribute to a patient’s specific risk.”