Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts
The Transplantation of Human Eye Allografts, or THEA, program intends to enable whole functional eye transplantation to restore vision for the blind and visually impaired. In addition, THEA aims to develop new technologies or therapies to preserve or regrow nerves from the eye to the brain. These regenerative solutions could help prevent degenerative blindness and are a necessary step toward successful whole eye transplantation.
To achieve THEA’s goals, the program invites proposals under three technical areas focused on (1) retrieval of donor eyes and tissue preservation, (2) optic nerve repair and regeneration, and (3) surgical procedures, post-operative care, and functional assessment.
The success of the program extends far beyond eye transplants and vision restoration. Techniques in microsurgery and gene or cell-based therapies for nerve regeneration may have the potential to be applied to other types of nervous system damage, including spinal cord injury. By starting with the eye’s nerves, the outputs of THEA could improve research into brain repair as well.
Platform Accelerating Rural Access to Distributed and Integrated Medical Care
The Platform Accelerating Rural Access to Distributed and InteGrated Medical Care (PARADIGM) program aims to address the current challenges in rural health by creating a scalable vehicle platform that can provide advanced medical services outside of a hospital setting. Building on recent developments in fields ranging from satellite communication to medical device miniaturization, this mobile care platform will allow health providers to meet rural patients where they are.
In order to create a platform that can bring sophisticated medical services to the doorstep of rural populations, PARADIGM will focus on five technical areas: 1) designing distributed hospital-level care, 2) producing an integrated care delivery platform, 3) harmonizing diverse medical device data within a single system, 4) building a miniaturized, ruggedized CT scanner, and 5) creating intelligent task guidance software to help health workers perform activities beyond their usual training.
If successful, PARADIGM hopes to develop a mobile platform capable of delivering many different types of cutting-edge services – including multi-cancer screenings, hemodialysis, perinatal care, and much more. With medical technology no longer tied to a specific place – but instead available on a platform that can travel to even the most remote locations – rural patients will thus be able to access the care that they need within their own communities.
PARADIGM is seeking a wide range of performers to help achieve the multidisciplinary goals of the program. Interested partners are invited to read the full solicitation and register for Proposers’ Day. Successful applicants will join a diverse group of performers, all of whom are committed to bringing advanced medical services to underserved rural populations throughout the country.
Health Care Rewards to Achieve Improved Outcomes
HEalth care Rewards to Achieve Improved OutcomES (HEROES) aims to trial and validate a radically different approach to creating preventative care incentives in the health market. This approach involves offering direct payments to individual “health accelerators” – such as non-profits or care consortiums – that successfully implement preventative care campaigns that improve the rates for specific health harms in an entire geographic population.
Examples of health challenges that HEROES may take on include cardiovascular disease and risks, alcohol-related harms, opioid overdoses, and severe complications during pregnancy or birth. To receive payment from the program, successful health accelerators must reduce the overall number of adverse health events – such as heart attacks or serious post-partum bleeds – that occur within a pre-defined target population.
To accelerate the program’s long-term sustainability, HEROES will invite outside entities – such as employers, philanthropic groups, or insurance providers – to partner with ARPA-H and purchase outcomes in the different regions that they serve. Over time, HEROES hopes that this novel incentive structure will eventually become self-sustaining and capable of “surviving in the wild” even after the program ends.
HEROES calls for letters of interest from potential health accelerators, corporations, investors, health insurers, and philanthropists invested in addressing one of the four health challenges mentioned above. Teams with diverse backgrounds and capabilities will be important for fulfilling the program’s goals, and HEROES encourages applications from interested parties with many different specialties or areas of expertise. To learn more about the program, view the HEREOS slides.