January 26, 2024 - Questions & Answers document posted.

This is a draft solicitation for the Platform Accelerating Rural Access to Distributed & InteGrated Medical care (PARADIGM) program. ARPA-H's intent is to post a final program solicitation in the near future. Questions and comments should be sent to PARADIGM@arpa-h.gov. This draft solicitation is not an invitation for abstracts or proposals. Any such responses will be disregarded. ARPA-H will not comment or provide feedback on questions related to proposed technical approaches.

Sixty million Americans live in rural areas with limited access to essential health services. This population is more likely to die from five leading causes —heart disease, cancer, trauma, lung disease, and stroke—than urban Americans. These geographic health disparities are likely to grow as approximately one third of rural hospitals are at risk of closing. When hospitals close, patients cannot access advanced imaging, laboratory testing, and specialty medical services. Platform Accelerating Rural Access to Distributed & Integrated Medical care (PARADIGM) will deliver hospital-level care via a multi-purpose Care Delivery Platform (CDP) that is as convenient as telehealth. The CDP will pioneer new developments in point-of-care diagnostics, ensure seamless data exchange between medical devices and electronic health records (EHRs), and offer real-time guidance for medical tasks. The CDP is designed for large-scale deployment by healthcare systems, particularly in rural and resource-limited settings. Achieving this goal will involve multiple parallel work streams including the development of a miniaturized self-shielded CT scanner that achieves >80% reduction in size, weight, and power from standard scanners; software that connects remote medical devices with EHRs; and intelligent task guidance systems to provide real-time, interactive decision support for healthcare workers to perform functions beyond their usual training. These innovations will be integrated into a rugged electric vehicle (EV) platform to create a seamless and efficient environment for advanced and customized care delivery. Health systems will deploy CDPs across the country to evaluate CDP-based care in a broad range of use cases for clinical effectiveness and financial sustainability.

ARPA-H intends to host a PARADIGM Proposers' Day in Phoenix, AZ during the week of February 12, 2024. Attendance at the Proposers' Day is not required to propose to the final Program Solicitation. Additional details, including registration information, will be provided as it becomes available.