The Department of Health and Human Services' Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health Launches New Cybersecurity Program

On May 20, 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) announced the launch of the Universal PatchinG and Remediation for Autonomous DEfense (UPGRADE) program. This program plans to invest more than $50 million in an effort to design tools for healthcare facility IT departments to better defend against cyberattacks. 

The UPGRADE platform seeks to evaluate weaknesses and gaps in the healthcare facilities’ cybersecurity efforts and then patch those issues on all devices used in the facility with minimal interruption. This new program is aimed at curing the cybersecurity hurdle of many internet-connected devices unique to each facility. 

Especially after an abundance of cyberattacks on healthcare facilities in recent years, HHS Deputy Secretary Andrea Palm says that the UPGRADE program “will help build on HHS’ Healthcare Sector Cybersecurity Strategy to ensure that all hospital systems, large and small, are able to operate more securely and adapt to the evolving landscape.” 

The UPGRADE program seeks proposals in four technical areas: (1) “creating a vulnerability mitigation software platform,”(2) “developing high-fidelity digital twins of hospital equipment,” (3) automatic vulnerability detection, and (4) automatic development of “custom defenses.” To learn more about UPGRADE, visit the UPGRADE program page.