OpenAI Foundation Will Commit $100 Million to Reconnect Hepatitis C Patients With Treatment
OpenAI Foundation Will Commit $100 Million to Reconnect Hepatitis C Patients With Treatment
On August 13, the Common Health Coalition, a coalition of healthcare organizations, announced the Breakthroughs to Follow-Through (B2F) program, funded by the OpenAI Foundation. Over two years, B2F aims to at least double the number of people cured of hepatitis C across eight initial US states and local jurisdictions. Local partnerships and nonprofit organizations in Alabama, Illinois, Louisiana, and Massachusetts will receive the first funding.
Hepatitis C is usually treated with antiviral tablets taken for 8–12 weeks. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that these medications cure more than 95% of people with the infection. However, a person must first be diagnosed, see a clinician, complete treatment, and undergo testing to confirm that the virus is no longer present.
In its announcement, the coalition estimates that about two out of every three people with hepatitis C in the US remain untreated. B2F will fund local partnerships, technical assistance, the exchange of practices among regions, and assessments of how patients progress through treatment. The funding will support the entire process, from identifying the infection to confirming a cure.
The announcement identifies three uses for AI: searching medical records for people who were diagnosed but did not begin treatment, preparing record summaries for clinicians and handling routine administrative work, and showing care teams where patients are most often lost during the treatment process. These tools are intended to help local teams reconnect with patients and identify where treatment is interrupted.
Professor Atul Gawande described the problem as follows:
“We have solutions. What we lack is the infrastructure to find people who have fallen out of the system, connect the people responsible for their care, and allow clinicians to do what they already know how to do.”
B2F focuses on the patient pathway: identifying the infection, reconnecting the person with treatment, and supporting them through confirmation of a cure. AI is expected to help care teams find patients who have fallen out of the system, prepare record summaries, and identify gaps between stages of treatment.