Federal 100: Gil Alterovitz
Name: Gil Alterovitz
Title: Presidential Innovation Fellow
Agency: Department of Veterans Affairs
Getting government ready for AI. A Harvard Medical School professor, Alterovitz was drawn to government by the untapped value he saw in federal health data. With cleaner data, artificial intelligence could better match patients to clinical trials, for example, so Alterovitz spearheaded an effort to encourage “AI-able data,” and it attracted data scientists from around the globe to participate. The 14-week sprint produced several AI-based solutions, some of which are already being commercialized. The lessons learned are feeding a “data commons” platform for VA, which Alterovitz said could transform the agency’s data into a national resource.