Platform Accelerating Rural Access to Distributed & InteGrated Medical care (PARADIGM)

April 16, 2024 - Amendment 03 posted. All attachments have been reposted for convenience. There have not been any changes to the attachment documents. April 8, 2024 - Amendment 02 posted. Price/cost narratives are required as part of Volume 2. April 4, 2024 - Amendment 01 and model OT posted. Notable changes to the solicitation are in red. However, interested parties should thoroughly review the amended documents for additional changes. March 29, 2024 - 'DRAFT' removed from the solicitation cover page.

March 28, 2024 - Questions and Answers posted. 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. All proposals in response to this solicitation must be submitted to eCPS at https://ecps.nih.gov/ by the due date and time specified.

Any proposals received after the due date and time, or submitted in any other system, will not be considered for award. It is recommended that proposers do not wait until the due date and time to attempt to submit. Questions and comments should be sent to PARADIGM@arpa-h.gov.