Hearst Health Prize Judges Select Finalists

LOS ANGELES—Hearst Health and the UCLA Center for SMART Health announced that a panel of judges has selected Mount Sinai Health System and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center as the 2024 Hearst Health Prize finalists. The winner will be announced at UCLA Health Data Day on June 4, 2024.

The Hearst Health Prize showcases data science programs making an impact on human health. The judges evaluated submissions using several criteria, including demonstrated health impact or outcomes, data science approach and scalability.

Mount Sinai Health System was selected for a machine learning application that enables the faster identification and treatment of malnutrition in hospitalized patients. Integrated directly within the electronic health record, NutriScan AI offers a high level of precision in identifying those patients most in need of nutritional intervention, enabling registered dieticians to prioritize patient visits accordingly. Hospitals deploying NutriScan AI have achieved a sustained increase in the malnutrition diagnosis rate.

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center was selected for its work developing data science pipelines for cancer research, specifically in the realm of lung cancer. The team has conducted studies that show promise in the ability of deep learning to advance cancer care and reshape clinical trials, including aiding in the identification of high-risk patients for lung cancer prevention, expediting lung cancer diagnosis and facilitating treatment decision-making for individualized therapy for lung cancer patients.

The finalists were selected by a panel of four judges:

• Ivelyse Andino, founder and chief executive officer of Radical Health Ivelyse is a nationally recognized leader in patient advocacy and health equity strategist building community at the intersection of health, equity and technology. Her work has helped bridge the gap between systemically marginalized communities and the medical system.
• Alex Bui, Ph.D., co-director of the UCLA Center for SMART Health Alex is a professor of radiological sciences, bioengineering, and bioinformatics and holds the David Geffen Chair in Informatics at UCLA. His primary research areas include distributed information architectures and mHealth; development, evaluation, and translation of AI-based
  methods for health care; and data visualization.
• Arash Naeim, M.D., Ph.D., co-director of the UCLA Center for SMART Health Arash is a professor of medicine and bioengineering at UCLA and holds the Yomtoubian Endowed Chair in Cancer and Risk Sciences. His primary research area is on the interface of aging and cancer, medicine and technology, and health economics. He is one of the principal investigators of the Clinical & Translational Science Institute, Chief Medical Officer and Associate Dean for Clinical Research, and Associate Director of the Institute for Precision Health.
• Jennifer K. Wagner, J.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of law, policy and engineering and anthropology at Penn State Jennifer is a multidisciplinary expert whose research has been focused on the international human right to science, including human-centered design and matters of nondiscrimination, privacy and equity with genomics and digital health technologies.

“I was impressed with the 2024 Prize submissions and anticipate some fascinating discussions next month,” Arash Naeim said. “UCLA Health Data Day not only creates a space to recognize innovative leaders using data science to transform health care, it opens pathways to uncover potential synergies and collaborative opportunities that will further advance this work.”

“With guidance from the Hearst Health businesses impacting care for the majority of people in the U.S., it’s our responsibility to help drive innovation across the health care ecosystem,” Gregory Dorn, M.D., president of Hearst Health, said. “Highlighting the work of the Hearst Health Prize finalists and sponsoring UCLA Health Data Day provides an avenue to carry out this commitment.”