Palo Alto-based UpDoc has been selected as a lead performer in the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) ADVOCATE program, receiving an award of up to USD 9.2 million to develop and validate an autonomous clinical AI system for cardiovascular care. UpDoc is one of several companies selected under ADVOCATE, alongside Tempus AI, which this week received an award of up to USD 9.5 million to develop an autonomous heart failure care system.
The 39-month project is part of ARPA-H's Agentic AI-Enabled Cardiovascular Care Transformation initiative, which is designed to support development of clinical AI systems through technical validation, regulatory review, and real-world deployment. UpDoc said later phases of the award are contingent on meeting predefined milestones.
The planned system will initially focus on heart failure and is intended to support functions including medication management, diet, exercise, and longitudinal care coordination. UpDoc said the program will include independent benchmarking against cardiologists, clinical studies under a US FDA Investigational Device Exemption, and deployment studies integrated with electronic health record systems.
Microsoft, OpenAI, and NVIDIA are supporting partners on the UpDoc-led team, although the companies did not disclose financial terms or specify the scope of each partner's contribution.