11 August 2020 - - US-based incentive competition operator XPRIZE Pandemic Alliance and academic research and educational institution the New England Complex Systems Institute have formed the COVID-19 CT Scan Collaborative, a new joint effort to dramatically accelerate the use of CT scans for COVID-19 diagnoses and treatment, the organisations said.

Research teams that develop the most effective clinical protocol for the use of CT scans in fighting COVID-19 will be awarded prizes from the USD 1.8m purse.

The new COVID-19 CT Scan Collaborative includes Mount Sinai Hospital, the Open-QIC COVID Registry and the endcoronavirus.org network.

XPRIZE is in designing and operating incentive competitions to solve humanity's grand challenges, and it recently announced a global XPRIZE Pandemic Alliance, which launched two major international competitions to address the COVID-19 pandemic: the XPRIZE NextGen Mask Challenge and XPRIZE Rapid COVID Testing.

The COVID-19 CT Scan Collaborative will operate the prize, and the XPRIZE Pandemic Alliance will help develop best practices and convene teams for the competition.

CT scans with high detection capabilities have the potential to increase testing access, disease monitoring and identification of early and asymptomatic cases.

As new radiology protocols typically take years to develop, this unprecedented, real-time collaboration will enable radiologists worldwide to view anonymized CT scans to improve their results.

The goal of the COVID-19 CT Scan Collaborative is to exponentially advance the development of CT scan clinical protocols for management of COVID-19 infections and increase the availability, ease and accuracy of diagnoses.

XPRIZE, a 501(c) (3) nonprofit, is a leader in designing and implementing innovative competition models to solve the world's grandest challenges.

The XPRIZE Pandemic Alliance is a global coalition that combines the power of collaboration, competition, innovation and radical thinking to accelerate solutions that can be applied to COVID-19 and future pandemics.

The New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI) is an independent academic research and educational institution with students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty. In addition to the in-house research team, NECSI has co-faculty, students and affiliates from MIT, Harvard, Brandeis and other leading institutions.

EndCoronavirus is an international volunteer coalition of over 15,000 scientists and experts who develop and promote community-based solutions for policy makers, businesses and individuals. It was founded by The New England Complex Systems Institute in February 2020.