Biden-Harris Administration announces up to $50 million to advance health data security in America

Six new projects funded by ARPA-H will address existing vulnerabilities in securing health care data and strengthen the nation’s digital health infrastructure

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, today announced up to $50 million in funding for six contract awards through the Digital Health Security (DIGIHEALS) project, a digital security project to protect the U.S. health care system's electronic infrastructure. The projects undertaken through these contract awards will seek to advance technologies that address vulnerabilities in securing health care data, such as automated medical device patching, ransomware intervention, cognitive health assistants for better data organization, cyber reasoning techniques, and electronic health record consolidation.

"Within rural communities and other underserved communities across the country, the lack of options to strengthen a hospital or clinic's cybersecurity can debilitate their ability to administer care," said ARPA-H Director Renee Wegrzyn. "These projects will seek to develop technologies that can address current gaps in cybersecurity for health care systems across the country, ensuring patients continue to receive care in the wake of a medical facility cyberattack."

"Together, these six contract awards represent a step forward in funding cutting-edge data security technologies to address pressing vulnerabilities in our health systems that are currently not addressed through existing national security efforts or the public and private sectors," said ARPA-H Program Manager Andrew Carney. "ARPA-H is uniquely positioned to take on this challenge of strengthening not only the electronic infrastructure of our health ecosystems but patients and their data too. I look forward to these contract projects going forward to strengthen the U.S. health care system's electronic infrastructure rapidly."

The six DIGIHEALS contract awardees include a mix of universities and companies from across the country—including Annandale, Virginia; Menlo, California; Tempe, Arizona; San Diego, California; and Woburn, Massachusetts —that work on technologies ranging from artificial intelligence to cybersecurity and cutting-edge analysis. To learn more about DIGIHEALS and all its funded projects, visit https://arpa-h.gov/research-and-funding/programs/digiheals.