San Antonio hosts ARPA-H Customer Experience Hub Information Session

SAN ANTONIO (Dec. 21, 2023) – A leading consortium of San Antonio research institutions joined with colleagues from across Texas and the region this week for an information session of the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) Customer Experience Hub (CX Hub). The regional event of more than 250 participants was organized by BioMedSA for the ARPA-H CX Hub and hosted by UTHealth San Antonio and the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). Participants received additional details about the role of ARPA-H Program Managers, spoke membership and an overview of the ARPA-H Advancing Clinical Trial Readiness (ACTR) initiative announced in October.

Joining with Austin, Dallas and Houston, earlier this year, San Antonio helped secure the national ARPA-H CX Hub in Texas. An agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, ARPA-H aims to accelerate breakthrough technologies and platforms in an effort to transform medicine and health and improve health outcomes for patients. The Texas-based CX Hub is one of three regional hubs to form this national health innovation network. The CX Hub is tasked with funding and developing solutions to make healthcare solutions more accessible and adoptable.

“Everything that happens in the Customer Experience Hub has to have the voice of the customer and be patient-centric, making sure it is translatable to future health outcomes,” explained Mike Stebbins, Vice President, Medical and Threat Countermeasures for Advanced Technology International (ATI).

The CX Hub currently has 208 spokes, including San Antonio larger research and academic organizations like UT Health San Antonio, UTSA, Texas Biomedical Research Institute, Southwest Research Institute and BioBridge Global to for-profit organizations like Scorpius BioManufacturing and other businesses such as Eagle Health Analytics. Organizations can apply to be a spoke within either the Customer Experience Hub or the Investor Catalyst Hub.

“The Customer Experience Hub is about creating inclusive opportunities for companies, researchers, healthcare providers and patients aiming to change the landscape of healthcare and develop more equitable health solutions for everyone,” said JoAnn Browning, UTSA vice president for Research, Economic Development and Knowledge Enterprise. “By hosting this Hub session, San Antonio provided foundational support to this national network and showcased how the City’s collaborative approach to coalition building and innovation drives better outcomes.”

“Hosting this national research network information session in San Antonio is meaningful as it identifies among many other things that Texas and the middle of the country is a strong biomedical resource for the rest of the United States and for the world,” UT Health San Antonio President Dr. William Henrich said. “What it opens up for us is possibilities to grow the research enterprise in these magnificent research institutions. Texas and its institutions will now stand at the center in facilitating progress so that the transformative science projects of today and tomorrow can get traction and work to achieve better health outcomes for everyone.”

Recently, the CX Hub launched the ACTR initiative, which according to ARPA-H informational material is aimed at identifying, integrating and advancing new solutions for clinical trials to encourage more diverse participation and better, faster outcomes. The initiative began with a community survey to determine what the participants have identified as critical challenges with clinical trials.

Stebbins explained that the ARPA-H Program Managers are tasked with finding truly unique approaches to solving our nation’s healthcare crisis and some of those solutions require being embedded in the community.

“We look forward to creating unique experiences for the ARPA-H team in San Antonio, showcasing our unique capabilities and resources and a community that is highly representative of the changing demographics nationally,” said BioMedSA President Heather Hanson. “It is important that San Antonio institutions have a seat at the table, and today’s informational session was just a first step. This program is also providing San Antonio the opportunity to network nationally and foster greater B2B networks beyond ARPA-H.”

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Contact: Lisa Cruz
Upside Communications
210-724-1691
lcruz@upsidecomms.com