Six technology companies winners of the Veterans Administration’s https://www.va.gov, National Artificial Intelligence Institute’s (NAII) Tech Sprint, have programs aimed at preventing veteran suicide by using Artificial Technology (AI).
The intent of the VA’s Artificial Intelligence Tech Sprint is to match the private sector with Veterans so that VA clinicians and other experts can help companies brainstorm solutions and new ideas over a three month period. Then the VA will further evaluate the best ideas and products to potentially adopt at pilot sites and then rollout the ideas and products nationwide.
In all, 44 teams from industry and universities participated in NAII’s Tech Sprint by addressing a range of healthcare challenges to include chronic conditions management, cancer screening, rehabilitation, patient experiences, and more.
Instead of the traditional contracting process that may take months or years to bring a product online that may not work as anticipated, companies are now able to tailor their products since the VA is involved from the ground up.
The NAII Tech Sprint Award winners include:
- First Place ($50,000) to Behavidence for a smartphone application able to monitor Veteran activity, by categorizing users by similar behavior flags for follow-up for those at increased risk for suicide
- Second Place ($25,000) to SoKat Consulting, LLC for creating a chatbot that can integrate with VA’s Blue Button medical records access. The chatbot can help Veterans get answers to questions and to enable them to have a better understanding of their healthcare between visits
- Third place ($10,000) to General Dynamics for an algorithm that can classify skin lesions and help medical staff determine if the quality of an image is good enough to make a skin cancer diagnosis
The VA also presented $5,000 awards to:
- JumpStartCSR ($5,000) for an app that integrates with physical therapy to prevent and treat injuries
- HIVE Lab (5,000) at George Washington University for an app to help veterans manage conditions such as diabetes by personalizing treatments based on gut microbiome
- Ouva, LLC (5,000) for a platform to help clinicians better monitor vital signs and other healthcare issues for patients in isolation
The next round of competition will open by the end of 2021. For more information, go to
https://www.research.va.gov/naii/tech-sprints.cfm