I have posted a number of previous notes about AI and predictive analytics (see, for example: Diagnostic and Predictive Analytics and Their Possible Link to the Future of the LIS; Three Examples of Predictive Analytics in Clinical Practice). Newly emerging tools such as clinically validated algorithms will not only change the face of medical care but will also be financially remunerative. CMS has been clever in its pursuit of AI by creating a challenge with a prize of $1M. In this contest, 25 finalists have been recently announced (see: IBM, Mayo Clinic, Geisinger among 25 finalists for $1.6M CMS artificial intelligence challenge). Below is an excerpt from the article:
Out of more than 300 artificial intelligence proposals, the Centers for Medicare & Medicare Services (CMS) picked 25 organizations for the next stage of its AI challenge including IBM, Booz Allen Hamilton and Mayo Clinic. The organizations are competing for a $1 million prize to develop the best tool for predicting patient health outcomes. CMS says the AI challenge, which launched in March, will accelerate the development of AI solutions that aid clinicians in predicting health outcomes and keeping patients healthy. The central goal is to develop AI-driven predictions healthcare providers and clinicians participating in CMS Innovation Center models can use, CMS officials said.....The challenge was created in partnership with the American Academy of Family Physicians and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. The AI challenge, open to innovators from all sectors, drew submissions from health systems, technology vendors such as KenSci and global aerospace and defense technology company Northrop Grumman Corporation.
CMS obviously has limited resources for the development of predictive algorithms on its own. Creating a contest provides publicity for health systems like Mayo and multinational consulting firms like Booz Allen Hamilton that choose to participate. Although the $1M prize is attractive, the greatest prize will be the revenue that can be gained later from running and licensing healthcare algorithms. I was searching for a succinct summary of such AI gains when I came across a relevant article in Forbes (see: AI And Healthcare: A Giant Opportunity). Below is an excerpt from it:
The total public and private sector investment in healthcare AI is stunning: All told, it is expected to reach $6.6 billion by 2021....Even more staggering, Accenture predicts that the top AI applications may result in annual savings of $150 billion by 2026. These benefits will accrue incrementally, from automated operations, precision surgery, and preventive intervention (thanks to predictive diagnostics), but within a decade they will fundamentally reshape the healthcare landscape as we know it....[An AI expert] expects that AI applications may help solve the dilemma of what’s known as the “iron triangle” in healthcare, in which three interlocking factors—access, affordability, and effectiveness—require inevitable and often negative trade-offs. Trying to improve one factor usually harms another, he explains.