US Health Research Agency Commits $62.7 Million to AI Bots for Heart Failure

ARPA-H, the US government agency that funds cutting-edge health research, plans to commit $62.7 million to develop artificial intelligence bots that help direct the treatment of heart failure, under a program called ADVOCATE announced this week.

Among ADVOCATE's goals is producing partially autonomous AI devices, authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, that can help treat patients — including assessing symptom severity, prescribing drugs and ordering lab tests.

ARPA-H announced its first batch of awards to health tech companies Atman Health, UpDoc and Tempus AI, along with teams from Stanford University, Duke University and the Kaiser Permanente health system, and said it may still fund additional teams. The amount committed for the program's first year is $33.7 million, with the remainder of the $62.7 million subject to renegotiation up or down.

About 6.7 million Americans have heart failure, and many do not get optimal treatment because of difficulty accessing specialists. The agency's hope is that AI agents developed with ARPA-H funding can help close that gap, especially in rural and other underserved settings.