SRI Develops Mobile Hospital Platform for Rural Healthcare

At a Glance

SRI International has been awarded an ARPA-H contract to build key components of PARADIGM, a mobile hospital-level healthcare platform
SRI is developing a medical IoT system called POET to connect the platform's devices to electronic health records
SRI is also building an AI-powered task guidance system, in collaboration with Mayo Clinic and the University of Florida, to let a single healthcare worker perform clinical procedures

Rural healthcare in the United States is at a tipping point. More than 100 hospitals in primarily rural areas have closed in the past 10 years, while another 600, roughly 30% of all rural hospitals, are at risk of closing due to budgetary challenges, according to the federal Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). To address the gap, ARPA-H launched the Platform Accelerating Rural Access to Distributed and Integrated Medical Care (PARADIGM) program, envisioning a vehicle-based platform that can deliver hospital-level services, from cancer screenings to CT scans to prenatal care, in remote locations [158].

SRI's Role in the Platform

SRI International was recently awarded an ARPA-H contract to provide two key components of the PARADIGM platform: a software system connecting the platform's medical devices to electronic health records (EHRs), and a task guidance system offering real-time decision support to help a caregiver perform clinical procedures [158].

The PARADIGM vision relies on satellite-based internet to create a secure data pipeline between the vehicle and the broader healthcare system, along with software designed to rapidly onboard new medical devices, miniaturized radiology equipment to fill "rural radiology deserts," and AI-powered task guidance tools intended to let the platform run with a single healthcare worker rather than a full medical team [158].

Solving the Data Portability Problem

One of PARADIGM's core challenges is the complexity of patient medical records; even healthcare systems running the same enterprise software often struggle to exchange data due to highly customized implementations and mismatched data fields. To address this, SRI, in collaboration with BayLibre, is building a new medical IoT system called POET, drawing on SRI's decade-long experience in AI, automation, and systems interoperability for the Department of Defense. POET aims to offer simple "plug-and-play" onboarding for medical devices while building in cybersecurity protocols to protect a healthcare system increasingly targeted by bad actors [158].

AI-Powered Task Guidance

A mobile care unit isn't cost-effective if it requires multiple doctors and staff on the road. To solve that, SRI, working with Mayo Clinic and the University of Florida, is developing an intelligent task guidance system using AI technology that enables general healthcare workers to perform clinical procedures without on-site specialists. The system is designed to reduce training requirements, increase accessibility in rural areas, and lower costs while improving patient outcomes [158].

According to SRI, no single solution can close every gap in rural healthcare, but proximity remains key, and PARADIGM represents a compelling path forward for reaching patients where traditional hospital infrastructure has disappeared [158].