ARPA-H Launches $50M Cybersecurity Initiative for Health Care Facilities

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health has launched the Universal PatchinG and Remediation for Autonomous DEfense program, a $50 million investment program designed to enhance cybersecurity for hospital IT systems.

UPGRADE seeks to develop a comprehensive software suite capable of proactively identifying vulnerabilities in systems and networks of devices within the health care ecosystem through the automatic and minimally disruptive generation and deployment of security patches, ARPA-H said.

The initiative will involve collaboration between IT staff, medical device manufacturers, health care providers and cybersecurity experts to develop a targeted and scalable cybersecurity solution for hospitals.

ARPA-H Director Renee Wegrzyn said UPGRADE will significantly improve response times to cyberthreats, enhancing the health care system’s cyber resilience during a crisis.

Under the UPGRADE program, ARPA-H plans to solicit proposals for developing a vulnerability mitigation platform, high-fidelity digital twins of hospital equipment and solutions that can auto-detect vulnerabilities and auto-develop custom defenses.

The initiative also builds upon ARPA-H’s other digital health security initiatives such as DIGIHEALS, a program targeting individual applications and devices, and the Artificial Intelligence Cyber Challenge, a competition focused on securing open-source software for critical infrastructure.