ARPA-H selects teams to deliver advanced hospital-level care to rural areas

Published

ARPA-H selects teams to deliver advanced hospital-level care to rural areas 

PARADIGM performer teams aim to create a specialized platform to provide advanced medical services outside a hospital setting 

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), today announced the teams selected by its Platform Accelerating Rural Access to Distributed & InteGrated Medical care (PARADIGM) program to receive awards. PARADIGM aims to create a multi-functional, rugged electric vehicle platform equipped with advanced medical devices to deliver hospital-level care in rural communities across the country.  

The 12 teams selected by PARADIGM are working across five technical areas: 

  • Decentralizing hospital-level care, including real-world evaluation of platform-enabled clinical workflows in remote areas 
  • Integrating advanced medical devices into a mobile vehicle platform 
  • Establishing a secure network that seamlessly connects devices with electronic health record systems 
  • Creating a rugged mobile-sized CT scanner, and 
  • Developing intelligent task guidance support to upskill mobile health care workers, allowing them to perform more efficiently.  

Teams are beginning by developing core components, and those with the most compelling demonstrations will integrate their capabilities into a comprehensive platform. Teams working in pursuit of each technical area include:  

Technical Area 1: Decentralized Approach to Hospital-level Care. These performers will test the platform's ability to support dozens of clinical workflows in remote areas.  

  • Homeward Health, Inc., of Kentwood, Mich., will design and test a mobile, procedure-driven care model using community engagement, human-centered design, and partnerships to improve clinical effectiveness and access in rural areas.  
  • Brigham & Women’s Hospital will provide innovative, high-impact care by leveraging their experience in home hospital care and human-centered design through their Rural Home Hospital Acute Mobile Hub.   
  • The Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah will deliver rural cancer care through mobile platforms.  

Technical Area 2: Care Delivery Platform Integration   

  • The Mission Mobile Medical Group, of Greensboro, N.C., will use its Care Delivery Platform that features modular “pods” that can be swapped in and out in different combinations—like cargo containers on a train—for different medical use cases.   
  • 10XBeta LLC, in Brooklyn, N.Y., will develop a highly modular care infrastructure where interchangeable modules support clinical use cases.  
  • Planned Systems International (PSI), in Columbia, Md., will leverage a multi-purpose vehicle platform and a unique “arm and rack” design for effective clinical workflows.    

Technical Area 3: Medical IoT Platform     

  • Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School will use the DocBox Apiary platform to create a plug-and-play environment for interoperable medical devices, ensuring security and scalability across health care settings.  
  • SRI International, of Menlo Park, Calif., will use its medical interoperability platform, POET, to integrate diverse medical devices in resource-constrained environments.    

Technical Area 4: Rugged CT Scanner   

  • Massachusetts General Hospital will design a full-ring, carbon nanotube CT scanner, offering enhanced angular resolution and flexible deployment for both horizontal and vertical applications.  
  • Micro-X Inc., of SeaTac, Wash., will use its lightweight, carbon nanotube-based CT scanner designed for mobile care and capable of expanding imaging access to underserved communities and radiology deserts.   

Technical Area 5: Intelligent Task Guidance   

  • SRI International will use its Multi-Tags system to support clinicians across multiple tasks, leveraging state-of-the-art machine learning models and a specialized clinical large language model.   
  • The University of Michigan will use its VIGIL platform to equip medical generalists with AI-guided task support, enabling specialized care that is often only accessible through on-site specialists.  

The performers’ awards are ceilings based on each performer meeting its contractual milestones.   

For more information, visit the PARADIGM program page.