$275,000 awarded in the first competition of its kind in the state
Photo: First prize winner third from left: Ramesh Batra, Surgical Director, Liver Transplant Program at Yale New Haven Transplantation Center. Flanked on left by: Christipher O’Connor, CEO, Yale New Haven Health; Lee Schwamm, MD, Sr. Vice President and Chief Digital Health Officer, Yale New Haven Health; Associate Dean, Digital Strategy & Transformation, Yale School of Medicine; and right by Adam Landman, MD, Chief Information Officer, Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
New Haven, CT (June 3, 2025) – On May 27, the Yale New Haven Health (YNHHS) Center for Healthcare Innovation hosted the first Health AI Championship, a premier competition designed to showcase groundbreaking applications of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare. The competition invited innovators from health systems and hospitals across Connecticut to develop AI-driven solutions that address critical challenges in patient care and healthcare operations.
“By inviting innovators to share cutting-edge ideas, we are accomplishing several things. We are fostering collaboration but also paving the way for real-world applications that can significantly improve patient outcomes and streamline healthcare operations,” said Lee Schwamm, MD, senior vice president and chief digital health officer, YNHHS and associate dean, Digital Strategy and Transformation, Yale School of Medicine. “In turn, this initiative is more than a competition – it’s a step towards designing more efficient, learning healthcare systems. This collaboration comes at the perfect time when AI’s potential to revolutionize healthcare has never been greater and Yale New Haven Health is very proud to take a leadership role in the AI domain.”
The Championship was shaped and guided by a hospital advisory group made up of clinical and operational leaders from across participating institutions. This group provided critical input on challenge design and evaluation criteria while completing a preliminary review of submissions. Members included leaders from Yale New Haven Health, Hartford HealthCare, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, Nuvance Health, UConn Health and Gaylord Specialty Healthcare – underscoring the statewide commitment to advancing responsible, collaborative AI innovation.
“This event is a reflection of what’s possible when health systems lead from the front – together,” said Walter Lindop, YNHHS Center for Health Care Innovation. “By collaborating with hospitals and health systems across Connecticut, we are pooling our expertise and resources to shape the right guardrails for trustworthy AI – while also showcasing the strength of Connecticut’s entrepreneurial AI ecosystem.”
Of the 54 applications received, the independent panel of judges narrowed the field down to 12 finalists. Each of those 12 teams presented their innovative ideas before a sold-out crowd and a panel of expert judges comprised of strategic investors and industry experts from BioCT, Define Ventures, Elm Street Ventures, LRVHealth, Microsoft and Mass General Brigham, who selected the winning teams.
Health AI Championship Awards Recipients:
First prize of $100,000 and the opportunity to validate their solution in YNHHS data ecosystem:
- Deep Machine Learning Model for Prediction of Death in Organ Donation after Circulatory Death (DCD). (Ramesh Batra, MBBS; Smita Krishnaswamy, PhD): AI-enabled model that predicts time-to-death following terminal extubation to optimize organ procurement processes, reduce dry runs and enhance transplant outcomes. Home Institution: Yale University
Second Prize (Two awards of $50,000 each):
- Ensight-AI (Rohan Khera, MD, Philip Kroon, MD, Evan Oikonomou, MD): AI-enabled ECG analysis tool that uses deep learning on standard ECG images to detect subclinical myocardial disease in real time, facilitating early diagnosis and timely intervention. Home Institution: Yale University
- Polaris (Richa Sharma, MD, Kevin Sheth, MD, Ho-Joon Lee, PhD): AI-driven co-pilot that utilizes machine learning to classify stroke etiology and extract actionable insights from unstructured EHR data, aiming to improve stroke outcomes and brain health. Home Institution: Yale University
Third Prize (Three awards of $25,000 each):
- Use of AI, Computer Simulation & Mathematical Optimization for Optimizing ED Resource Allocation (Tze Chiam, PhD, Ahmed Gailan Qasem, Sarah Visker, RN, John Brancato, MD): Cloud-based Emergency Department operations management platform that integrates AI/ML forecasting, optimization modeling, discrete-event simulation and digital twin technology. Home Institution: Connecticut Children’s Hospital
- Detection and Localization of Subdural Hematoma with Subsequent Recurrence Prediction using AI (Tapan Mehta MD, Bernard Burman, Rohan Kumar, Vasiliki Stoumpou, Dimitris Bertsimas, PhD): AI-driven platform that facilitates rapid identification and precise localization of subdural hematomas. Home Institution: Hartford Healthcare
- AI-Enabled Multi-Class Diagnosis of Ejection Fraction from Electrocardiograms (Steven Zweibel, MD, Catherine Ning, Dimitri Bertsimas, PhD): AI-enabled multi-class diagnosis tool for ejection fraction from electrocardiograms integrating into the Electronic Health Record at multiple sites. This team also received the Audience Choice Award. Home Institution: Hartford Healthcare
Honorable Mentions:
- GaylordAuth, an AI-Driven Pre-Authorization Optimization Platform: (David Chen, MD, Henry Hrdlicka) AI-driven pre-authorization optimization platform for LTACHs (Long term acute care hospitals) that streamlines the Pre-Authorization process to reduce denials and administrative workload while enhancing revenue cycle efficiency. Home Institution: Gaylord Specialty Healthcare
- Re-Agent (Po-Jen Lin, MD, Tai-Lin Lee, MD, Yu-Tien Hsu, Kai Wang): AI-driven research collaboration platform that employs agentic AI to automate complex administrative workflows – from Internal Review Board applications to funding proposals. Home Institution: Nuvance Health
The Health AI Championship was pioneered by Dr. Schwamm and created by the YNHHS Center for Healthcare Innovation with generous support from Senator James Maroney, the State of Connecticut and ARPA funding. The Center’s goal is to challenge people from all areas, industries and backgrounds to identify problems in health care and find impactful solutions.
Yale New Haven Health (YNHHS), the largest and most comprehensive healthcare system in Connecticut, is recognized for advanced clinical care, quality, service, cost effectiveness and commitment to improving the health status of the communities it serves. YNHHS includes five hospitals – Bridgeport, Greenwich, Lawrence + Memorial, Westerly and Yale New Haven hospitals, several specialty networks and Northeast Medical Group, a non-profit medical foundation with several hundred community-based and hospital-employed physicians. YNHHS is affiliated with Yale University and Yale Medicine, the clinical practice of the Yale School of Medicine and the largest academic multi-specialty practice in New England. Yale New Haven Hospital is the primary teaching hospital of Yale School of Medicine. www.ynhhs.org
