Abridge and Nuance Win Veteran Affairs AI Contracts

The Department of Veteran Affairs plans to award fixed-price contracts to this year’s AI Tech Sprint program winners, Abridge AI and Nuance Communications. With the Abridge Nuance AI contract, the two companies will evaluate and test cloud-based, commercial, and ambient software in real VA environments.

HealthCare IT News reported that the companies will develop speech-to-technology that can upload excerpts of EHR-agnostic files and take healthcare provider notes.

Need for SaaS Tools

The department needs SaaS tools to generate notes and translate clinical encounters to integrate with electronic health records. The Abridge and Nuance AI contract will allow doctors to add visit information without having to copy and paste it manually.

The VA has made significant progress in mobile and cloud computing. This progress gives more veterans access to their patient and benefit information. The agency is transitioning to a new method of delivering software that creates inferences based on complex mathematics and large models.

“This paradigm is quite different. I think all of the techniques we’ve used to get to this point we’re going to have to rethink because all of those techniques are necessarily applicable to a world where we’re generating inferences and using those inferences to deliver outcomes,” VA Chief Technology Officer and Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer, Charles Worthington said.

Competitive Process

Launched in 2023, the AI Tech Sprint Initiative supports AI contracts to reduce burnout through development of ambient dictation solutions for clinical encounters. The Initiative also supports advanced document-processing systems for its Community Care Program.

The VA seeks high fidelity, traceable records provider solutions from platforms that can interoperate with its health system to address provider needs. The AI Tech Sprint challenge also seeks to incorporate advanced software features, including SNOMED CT codes and LOINC codes to medical records.

This year’s challenge was rigorous and highly competitive. It attracted 150 teams, out of which 25 were finalists.

AI-Based Documentation

Generative AI is attractive to healthcare providers because it simplifies difficult, manual processes.

“AI solutions can help us reduce the time that clinicians spend on non-clinical work, which will get our teams doing more of what they love most: caring for Veterans. This effort will reduce burnout among our clinicians and improve veteran healthcare at the same time,” VA undersecretary for health, Dr. Shereef Elnahal said.

One of the contract awardees, Abridge is looking to simplify patient-doctor interactions with its solution.

“We could all but eliminate the administrative load that has eroded the quality of doctor-patient conversations and has famously broken the spirit of many clinicians,” Abridge CEO and Practicing Cardiologist, Dr. Shiv Rao said.

Last year, Nuance Communications used generativeAI to develop advanced ambient documentation products.