Sign up for The Brief, the Texas Tribune's daily newsletter that provides readers with the most important Texas news.
Dallas will be one of three national locations for a new federal agency pursuing “transformative breakthroughs” in science and medicine, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday.
The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) is a Biden administration initiative aimed at preventing and treating diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer's disease and diabetes. ARPA-H includes a network of “spokes,” or local health care providers, across all 50 states, as well as other national locations in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the Washington, D.C., area.
“Using a hub-and-spoke model allows us to create efficiencies that cannot be achieved using other methods, such as quickly contacting patients, providers, and other stakeholders,” ARPA-H Director Renee Wegrzyn said in a statement. It is happening,” he said.
Dallas has been named the agency's customer experience hub and is tasked with developing health solutions that are “accessible, needed and ready to deploy,” according to the release. Part of this effort includes diversifying clinical trials and reaching demographically representative patient populations. Advanced Technology International, a public interest nonprofit that works primarily with the Department of Defense, will manage the Dallas location.
It was not immediately clear how many jobs the hub would create.
Gov. Greg Abbott said in a statement Tuesday that the Dallas-Fort Worth area is an “ideal location” for a national hub given the growing health sciences industry.
“Texas is a national leader in medical research and innovation, solving many of our nation's and world's scientific challenges,” Abbott said.
Dallas' selection comes after a group of U.S. representatives from Texas and Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) wrote a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra urging him to bring the agency to Texas. This took place more than a year after the Earlier this year, a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers from Texas also signed a letter supporting ARPA-H in the state, along with a similar letter signed by both Cornyn and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). signed.
“Texas has the infrastructure, diversity, and technology needed to advance ARPA-H, including the world's largest medical center and the nation's largest military medical complex,” the letter said.
Although the agency ultimately chose Dallas, the world's largest medical center, the Texas Medical Center, is actually located in Houston — Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner pushed for the agency to locate in its home city last year. I mentioned that point when I did it.
However, ARPA-H notes that while the three national core cities will be the research hubs, expanding activities beyond these cities and states is an important goal of the agency.
“ARPANET-H is a testament to our commitment to inclusivity and innovation in health care,” Becerra said in a release Tuesday. “With a wide range of cutting-edge medical capabilities, this dynamic national network embodies our unwavering mission to advance health outcomes in every corner of the country and beyond.”
The Texas Tribune's signature event of the year, the Texas Tribune Festival, brings Texans closer to the politics, policy and news of the day in Texas and beyond. On September 23rd, we concluded his 2023 Festival. It was a vibrant three days packed with over 125 sessions and events. View on-demand recordings and check out the biggest headlines from festival events on Tribune's Festival News page.
