Despite huge advances in the development of novel medical therapies, Americans still live with poor health outcomes and suffer from the ill-effects of disease. Current medical research and the medical delivery system in the United States focus primarily on the reactive treatment of illnesses, despite the fact that many diseases or their ill-effects are preventable.
The Proactive Health Office (PHO) at ARPA-H is seeking solutions to improve the healthspan and health outcomes of Americans prior to the onset of disease and/or the development of diminished quality of life from illness. Specifically, PHO hypothesizes that 1) population-level improvements in access to and uptake of disease prevention and wellness-promoting behaviors and 2) development of novel early-detection methods and prophylactic interventions could drastically improve the health of American throughout their lives, and 3) that system level innovations are required for delivery of proactive health effectively. Specific PHO interest areas include:
Novel prevention, detection and prophylactic treatment methods for disease:
• Novel and scalable methods for early detection of disease and illness including the use of low/no-cost sensing modalities.
• Prophylactic approaches to prevention of diseases and harmful disease outcomes.
• Methods for continuous and widespread sensing of health state and early disease indicators that can be deployed at population-scale.
Population-level approaches to increase the adoption of prevention and wellness behaviors:
• Early indicators of disease and pre-disease states and measures associated with proactive health outcomes that are both inexpensive and effective. Low-cost, high-uptake mental health resiliency and mindfulness building methods for individuals.
• Methods to inform and educate individuals about healthy behaviors including lifestyle and preventative medical measures.
• Methods that incentivize individuals to adopt and maintain healthy behaviors.
• Novel approaches to increasing individual healthspan and independence even in the absence of disease.
System innovation for the delivery of proactive health outcomes:
• Novel, robust and predictive surrogates for long-term health outcomes with associated epidemiological models.
• Valuation models for long-term treatment effects for vaccination, screening and other public health interventions.
• New funding and delivery models for preventative intervention.
Other high-quality submissions that propose revolutionary technologies that meet the goals of PHO will be considered even if they do not address the topics listed above.
Closing Date: March 14, 2025