Kickstart AI and the Dutch AI Coalition today announced the winner of the National AI Challenge 2024. After a selection day where five finalists presented their cases, Erasmus MC emerged as the winner.
Erasmus MC wants to use AI technology to improve the efficiency and quality of care in the Emergency Department. A team of dedicated AI experts and software engineers from Kickstart AI is now setting to work to solve Erasmus MC's challenges with AI.
Luka van der Sande, Advisor & Analyst Integral Capacity Management (ICM) at Erasmus MC: "We are very happy to have won. Very nice to work together on our use case so that we can better predict how many patients will come to the emergency room and when. As a result, the right care can be delivered to the right place faster."
Application process
The first National AI Challenge started on June 11, 2024, with the submission of use cases. The most promising submissions met criteria such as addressing a concrete, relevant problem within the organization's core business, creating societal impact (scalable solution) and having sufficient qualitative data for AI development.
Selection process
After a pre-selection, the top five candidates presented their cases to the jury on September 9, 2024. The finalists were Auris (in collaboration with University of Twente), Louwman Group, Gemeente Huizen and partners, Erasmus MC and Stichting Carecodex. An expert jury, chaired by Marelle van Beerschoten (founder and director of Digital Shapers), consisting of Jos de Groot (director of digital economy at the Ministry of Economic Affairs), Janneke Niessen (founder and investor at CapitalT), Andy Lurling (founder of LumoLabs) and Thomas Dohmen (director of Utrecht AI Lab) then chose the winner. Erasmus MC stood out with a concrete problem and clear social impact.
Jury Verdict
Marelle van Beerschoten, founder and director of Digital Shapers, and chairman of the jury of the National AI Challenge: "Erasmus MC presented an extremely concrete and socially relevant case during the National AI Challenge. Predicting the number of patients in the emergency room is a complex challenge and requires an innovative approach in which AI can play a crucial role. We are excited that the AI experts from Kickstart AI will now collaborate with healthcare professionals at Erasmus MC to jointly develop an AI solution that can potentially be applied more widely in the healthcare sector."
Follow-up
In the coming months, a team of dedicated AI experts and software engineers from Kickstart AI will develop an advanced AI solution for Erasmus MC. This will not only focus on building an advanced AI model and the software needed to integrate that model into Erasmus MC's current digital environment, but will also pay close attention to usability. The team aims to achieve a seamless connection between AI technology and the daily work of healthcare professionals, in order to achieve maximum impact in patient care. Most importantly, the insights generated in this track are valuable to a wider audience and contribute to the development and adoption of AI in the Netherlands. This boosts both innovation and productivity and strengthens the competitive position of the Netherlands.
Learn more
Kickstart AI and the Dutch AI Coalition both focus on promoting the development and adoption of AI in the Netherlands and have found each other as complementary partners with a shared mission to advance the development and adoption of AI. As a first step in the collaboration, the National AI Challenge 2024 was launched for NL AIC participants. Through the website and socials of Kickstart AI and NL AIC, interested parties can stay up to date on the progress of the project.
