Published January 13, 2026
Agency to work toward first FDA authorized autonomous agentic system that can provide high-quality specialty care directly to patients
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), today announced a new research and development funding opportunity through its Agentic AI-Enabled Cardiovascular Care Transformation (ADVOCATE) program. This program aims to develop the first FDA-authorized, agentic artificial intelligence (AI) technology that can provide 24/7 specialty care for the deadliest chronic disease in the United States. This technology could serve as a clinician extender that patients engage with at all times, keeps a close eye on their heart health, and provides access to personalized information and actions, all of which can help them live long and well with advanced heart disease.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD) can be successfully managed with diet, exercise, and affordable medications. Yet CVD remains the most common cause of death and disability in the country, leading to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths and tens of billions of dollars in avoidable healthcare costs every year. Half of U.S. counties do not have a single practicing cardiologist, creating significant access and treatment hurdles. ADVOCATE will support a transformative advance by integrating wearable health monitors, digital health records, and agentic AI. Agentic AI refers to systems that can act independently to achieve pre-determined goals with minimal human oversight. Together, these tools will be brought together to provide real-time guidance that patients and care teams can act on.
“One of the most serious – and preventable – consequences of chronic disease is heart failure,” said HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill. “ARPA-H’s frontier approach will accelerate AI adoption with a new model of care that can be applied across diseases, improving health and saving lives.”…