BY KIM BELLARD

Everyone loves DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency that is credited with such hits as the internet and GPS, but is also responsible for things like the Boston Dynamics back-flipping robots and even Siri.  DARPA’s mission is to make “pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security,” but, as the previous examples illustrate, we can’t always tell how those breakthrough technologies are going to get used.  

Healthcare is, at long last, getting its own DARPA, with ARPA-H (Advanced Research Project Agency for Health).  It’s been discussed for years, but just last week was finally funded; a billion dollars over three years.  But I fear it is already off on the wrong foot, even ignoring the fact that President Biden had requested $6.5b.