ARPA-H Funds 12 Teams to Build Mobile Care Platform for Rural Settings
The federal Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) announced the 12 teams selected by its Platform Accelerating Rural Access to Distributed & InteGrated Medical care (PARADIGM) program to receive awards. The program 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.
If successful, the mobile platform will offer many advanced services, including multi-cancer screenings, hemodialysis, and perinatal care. By removing the need for fixed locations, this platform can bring medical care to even the most remote areas, allowing rural patients to access the care they need in their own communities.
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 healthcare 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 medical staff of the University of Utah College of Nursing and its Huntsman at Home initiative will deliver comprehensive cancer services 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.
In a statement David Levine, M.D., M.P.H., M.A., Clinical Director of Research & Development at Mass General Brigham Healthcare at Home and Director of Ariadne Labs’ Home Hospital Program, said: “The U.S. healthcare system typically centers its most advanced capabilities around hospitals and associated facilities, yet many patients are unable to access this care. Our goal is to democratize access to hospital-level care, blending our experience in human-centered design, home-based technology, implementation, and rural Home Hospital to touch patients at common critical moments in their lives. We want to create a cost-effective, scalable solution for all of rural U.S.A.”
