Wearable health monitoring devices are set to get a multimillion-dollar infusion of research investment from the Department of Health and Human Services, which is setting a goal of helping patients better listen to their bodies and improving long-term health outcomes.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health launched a new project on Tuesday meant to increase the number of biomarkers that personal biowearable devices can monitor.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other health officials in President Donald Trump’s Cabinet have stressed the value of wearable health monitoring devices, such as Oura rings, Apple Watches, and FitBits, that enable people to track their personal health signs.
Current wearable sensor technologies measure physiological biomarkers, such as heart rate, heart rate variability, blood pressure, or basal body temperature, none of which require the device to monitor bodily fluids.
ARPA-H director Alicia Jackson said in a press statement that the project is aiming “for something fundamentally different” than current wearable health technology on the market today.
“Anyone with a heart monitor in their watch knows how rewarding it can be to access their body’s signals in real time—but today’s limited, bulky, and expensive biosensors only scratch the surface of what’s possible,” Jackson said.
ARPA-H officials have named the project Delphi, the Greek city where the philosophical concept of “knowing thyself” originated.
“We built this program to empower people to know themselves in a way never before possible,” Paul Sheehan, Delphi program manager, said in a press statement.
The biosensors produced through the Delphi project are intended for much harder signs to measure than what are currently available, including cellular levels of inflammation known as cytokines and hormone levels.
Continuous glucose monitors are another common form of biosensor that monitors bodily fluids, but ARPA-H officials told reporters that measuring the amount of glucose in a person’s bloodstream is easier than registering cytokines or hormones.
One practical application of this new technology could be used in in vitro fertilization treatment. Currently, IVF patients have to go into a doctor’s office at the same time each day for hormone testing before egg retrieval or embryo implantation. But a wearable device that could monitor hormone levels at home would eliminate the need for daily visits, making treatment more streamlined and accessible.
Another application could be allowing hospitals to discharge patients sooner by using wearables to monitor patients at home instead of the hospital, freeing up bed space and decreasing burdens on hospitals. The wearable technology, in theory, would alert the patient’s healthcare team if he or she needs to return to the hospital before the patient’s condition worsens to needing emergent care.
One official told reports that part of the goal for the program is to “keep people from becoming patients [and] keeping patients out of the hospital as much as possible.”
The agency plans to take advantage of “chiplet” technology in the semiconductor industry, where chips can be broken into subcomponents. Officials said the chiplets are “remixed and reused,” akin to Lego blocks.
“With this innovative approach, ARPA-H aims to transform the future of these devices and unlock a new level of precise, personalized care for millions of Americans,” Jackson said in the press release.
Delphi is expected to go on for 4 1/2 years. When asked how much the Delphi project would cost, senior officials told the Washington Examiner that funding would be determined on a competitive basis as private-sector stakeholders in industry and academia submitted proposals.
Unlike other research agencies within HHS, ARPA-H engages in milestone-based contracts with its partners, often meeting weekly to track performance and make changes as needed.
“Because some of these are really big bets, if it’s not paying off, we can pull back on some of that funding, and if it’s something going gangbusters, we can double down,” an agency official told reporters.
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ARPA-H’s budget in 2024 was $1.5 billion, with individual projects ranging in costs from the millions to hundreds of millions.
The global wearables market was valued at roughly $43 billion in 2024 and is expected to increase to $168 billion by 2030.
