Winners Recognized for Standards-Based AI Innovation, Collaboration and Real-World Impact
Today, HL7 announced the winners of its first-annual HL7 AI Challenge, spotlighting innovators developing AI applications powered by open, standards-based frameworks in healthcare. The announcement was made during the morning session of HL7’s 39th Annual Plenary and Working Group Meeting (WGM) in Pittsburgh.
Judges selected nine honorees from across multiple categories, recognizing innovation, collaboration and real-world impact.
AI Challenge Overall Awardee Winners
- Robert Lario, PhD (Xzyos.ai) and Kevin Baskin, MD (Vanguard): AI-Conformable Venous Atlas: A Novel Solution for Clinical-Structural Correlation and Medical Device Surveillance
- Verto Health: VERTO Connect: A Solution to Healthcare's Unstructured Data Problem
- Quantek Systems, Inc: DynaMap AI – Active Inference-driven Clinical Workflow Engine
And six honorees were recognized for their contributions in the following specialized categories.
AI Challenge Category Winners
- Pioneer in Healthcare Innovation: (Ignyte Group and Appian) – Bring AI to Work(flow) – Provides robust process improvement throughout the patient lifecycle via AI agentic assistance
- Excellence in AI Transparency & Trust: (Trisotech) – Standardizing Clinical Autonomy: BPM+ Determinism and HL7 Integration for AI Agents
- Interoperability Leadership Award: (Whitefox Cloud Consulting) – Whitefox FHIR Converter
- Open Solution Award: (Omni Health Nexus) – The Intelligent Medical Assistant – Revolutionizing Information Management for Better Care
- Clinical Data Quality & Outcomes Award: (Aidbox Forms from Health Samurai)– AI Assistant for FHIR SDC and Analytics
- Transformative Impact in Healthcare Award: (Let’s Talk Doc) – AI Avatar Patient Communication Platform
“The HL7 AI Challenge highlights how our open, vendor-neutral standards enable safe, scalable, and interoperable AI in healthcare,” said Daniel Vreeman, DPT, HL7 Chief Standards Development Officer and Chief AI Officer. “These submissions reflect the creativity, collaboration, and commitment of the global health IT community to deliver real-world solutions that improve care delivery and patient outcomes.”
With 30 entries spanning every inhabited continent, the HL7 AI Challenge showcased global interest in AI solutions that enhance clinical workflows, operational efficiency and quality of care. Winners were selected by a distinguished international panel of AI and health IT leaders, recognized for advancing AI solutions that deliver measurable benefits to healthcare systems and patients.
“I was honored to support the HL7 AI Challenge and the innovators driving it forward. Driving the evaluation was a united belief that open standards and trustworthy AI can accelerate transformative change — improving outcomes, enhancing interoperability and shaping a more resilient future for patients and providers alike,” said Ben Cushing, Chief Architect of Health & Life Sciences at Red Hat and AI Challenge judge. The contest highlighted work that offers insights for responsible use of AI to advance real-world health industry challenges.
AI Challenge Background
Launched in May 2025, the HL7 AI Challenge invited technologists, researchers and clinicians worldwide to demonstrate how HL7 standards can power AI applications that address clinical, operational or quality-focused challenges. Submissions came from across the health sector, including health systems, technology vendors, researchers, and others, bringing diverse experience from around the globe, representing countries such as the U.S., Canada, Argentina, Australia, Croatia, Brazil, Kenya and Uzbekistan. Roughly half this year’s entries came from the global community outside of HL7, which was particularly notable.
“The goal of the HL7 AI Challenge was to uncover and spotlight the highly impactful AI work from across the health IT community, and the role HL7 plays in making that happen. We couldn’t be happier with the results of the contest and the innovation, ingenuity and impact presented by the challenge awardees, and by all the submitters,” said Ken Rubin, Interoperability Architect at the University of Utah’s Department of Biomedical Informatics and AI Challenge Coordinator on behalf of HL7’s Board.
Awardees will have the opportunity to engage with HL7 members during WGM sessions, including demonstrations of their solutions and discussions of best practices in implementing AI standards. HL7 looks forward to continuing to support this vibrant, global community of innovators by providing platforms for awardees to share insights, engage with peers, and advance the implementation of standards-based AI in healthcare. In the coming weeks, more details about the AI Challenge solutions will be published on the HL7 website in the form of case studies, insights, and best practices.
The challenge judges represented leading experts in the AI field from across the globe:
- David Bray, Distinguished Fellow and Chair of the Accelerator, Alfred Lee Loomis Innovation Council, Henry L. Stimson Center; Principal, LeadDoAdapt Venture
- Adam Chee, Ph.D., MPH, FHL7, Founding Lead, Centre for AI-Enabled Health (CAIEH)
- Ben Cushing, Chief Architect of Health & Life Sciences at Red Hat
- Dean Ho, Ph.D., Provost’s Chair Professor, National University of Singapore; Director, Institute for Digital Medicine (WisDM)
- Polyanna Jones, Senior Policy Advisor, NHS England
- Peter O’Halloran, Chief Digital Officer, Australian Digital Health Agency
- Karandeep Singh, M.D., Jacobs Chancellor’s Endowed Chair and Chief Health AI Officer, UC San Diego Health; Joan and Irwin Jacobs Chancellor’s Endowed Chair in Digital Health Innovation, UC San Diego
- R “Ray” Wang, Founder, Chairman, and Principal Analyst, Constellation Research; Co-Host, DisrupTV
For more information about the HL7 AI Challenge and submission details, visit: https://info.hl7.org/ai-challenge.
