UpDoc Awarded $9.2 Million to Develop Autonomous Clinical AI for Cardiovascular Disease

UpDoc, a clinical AI company, has been awarded up to $9.2 million by the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to lead the development of an autonomous clinical AI system. This initiative, part of the Agentic AI-Enabled Cardiovascular Care Transformation (ADVOCATE) program, aims to create a first-of-its-kind, FDA-authorized system that will manage cardiovascular disease through proactive, personalized care.

The $9.2 million grant will support the development of an AI agent capable of autonomously managing heart failure, including medication management, dietary recommendations, and exercise guidance. The program’s goal is to create a reliable, around-the-clock clinical AI system that can serve as a new member of the patient's care team, addressing the urgent need for more proactive and scalable approaches to cardiovascular disease management.

The initiative brings together a diverse team, including Microsoft, OpenAI, and NVIDIA, to support UpDoc’s efforts. Dr. Sharif Vakili, CEO and co-founder of UpDoc, emphasized the critical need for advanced care in cardiovascular disease. "Nearly one million Americans die from cardiovascular disease each year, many as a result of critical gaps in our current care model," he said. "ADVOCATE is a federal commitment to engineering past those constraints and ensuring access to care."

The ADVOCATE program is structured as a 39-month, multi-phase effort. Performers must advance through competitive milestone evaluations to gain access to a fully funded pathway from prototype to real-world clinical use. This includes independent verification and validation studies, clinical trials conducted under FDA Investigational Device Exemption, and large-scale scalability studies within partner health systems.

UpDoc's current FDA-cleared insulin management system, which combines medical device functionality with conversational AI, has already demonstrated the potential for continuous, physician-level care. The company’s platform is designed to expand the capacity of care teams, enabling personalized, high-touch care for patients, particularly those who lack access to specialty care.

"Too many patients lack timely access to specialty cardiovascular care, leading to delayed interventions and poorer health outcomes," said Thomas Osborne, Chief Medical Officer at Microsoft Federal. "ADVOCATE reflects a bold vision from ARPA-H to bring together healthcare, regulatory, and technology leaders to discover the most effective ways to safely extend the reach and capabilities of care teams."

The ADVOCATE program is part of a broader effort by the federal health enterprise to ensure access to care and build the regulatory, reimbursement, and technical foundation for clinical AI. "ADVOCATE represents an unprecedented level of coordination across the federal health enterprise," said Haider Warraich, MD, Program Manager at ARPA-H. "ARPA-H is working alongside the FDA and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC) to ensure safe, validated clinical AI has a clear path to patients."

Through this initiative, UpDoc aims to prove that autonomous clinical AI can be trusted with patients who need it most, addressing the critical gaps in current care models. The company’s platform is expected to transform chronic care delivery, making personalized, high-touch care available to a broader patient base.