May 9, 2024
The AIM-AHEAD Consortium, an artificial intelligence (AI) program funded by the National Institutes of Health to advance health equity and researcher diversity, is accepting proposals for a new program developed by OCHIN. As an AIM-AHEAD partner institution, OCHIN developed the Innovation for Equity program to engage medically underserved communities in developing AI innovations—an important component in ensuring that developments in AI don’t further exacerbate health disparities. Taona Haderlein, PhD, an OCHIN research investigator and co-director of Innovation for Equity, answered a few questions about the program.
What is OCHIN’s role in AIM-AHEAD and in this particular Innovation for Equity program?
OCHIN is a founding partner of the AIM-AHEAD Data and Research Core, which aims to broaden the diversity and representation of health care data in AI by expanding its availability to diverse teams of researchers to address health disparities. The Innovation for Equity program will fund multi-institutional partnerships with community health centers to pilot novel AI tools and approaches to community engagement. I am happy to be working with OCHIN Research Collaborations Program Director Josh Lemieux and Usha Sambamoorthi, PhD, of the University of North Texas Health Science Center, as co-directors of Innovation for Equity. Additional OCHIN AIM-AHEAD team members will lead all aspects of the new program, including dissemination to community health centers to encourage their participation.
How does the Innovation for Equity program advance health equity?
Innovation for Equity will provide $500,000 to six awardees toward developing novel AI solutions for reducing health care disparities in cancer, metabolic health, and/or behavioral health. Successful applicant teams will include researchers partnering with community health centers and/or clinics serving medically underserved communities experiencing health disparities.
What’s the goal of the program?
Innovation for Equity is responding to the challenge of preventing AI advances from widening health inequities. Challenges include:
- Medically underserved areas are not benefiting from advances in AI at the same pace as higher-resource settings
- Many AI models are not informed by the data, needs, and perspectives of communities impacted by health disparities.
The primary goal is to support the development of multidisciplinary research pilot projects that will use AI approaches with the potential to substantively impact health care access, quality, value, and outcomes for patients experiencing health disparities.
What benefits would a community health center gain from engaging in this program?
Community health centers and their partner institutions will receive a combined $500,000 in total costs, per project, to develop and pilot a novel AI solution or approach during the one-year funding period. The program offers an opportunity to engage community health centers in collaborative, equal partnerships toward reducing health disparities and improving health outcomes in their local communities. An additional year of competitive funding may also be available for teams who successfully address pilot scale-up and sustainability (pending NIH approval).
Where can interested individuals or organizations go to learn more?
Please see the Call for Proposals on the AIM-AHEAD website. The deadline for applications is June 17, 2024.
