HHS Launched AI Program for Clinical Trials

The initiative aims to accelerate drug development through new AI-driven research projects.

Updated on Oct. 5, 2026 in Artificial Intelligence

Isometric editorial illustration of a glass prism on a geometric research bench, representing modern clinical trial infrastructure. — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has launched the SURPASS initiative, awarding contracts to Evidence Health and Courage Health to integrate AI into clinical trial designs. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has introduced the SURPASS program to use artificial intelligence for adaptive clinical trial designs. The agency also awarded contracts to Evidence Health and Courage Health to lead three new research initiatives designed to modernize trial infrastructure.

Why it matters

The program seeks to address high drug development costs and high failure rates by streamlining how clinical trials are activated and managed. By leveraging AI to simulate trials and expand site access, the initiative aims to speed up the delivery of effective treatments to patients.

The SURPASS program utilizes an AI-based phaseless design engine to simulate trials, while the COMMONS project integrates 3 million records from a target population of 40 million individuals.

The players

Department of Health and Human Services

This federal agency is responsible for overseeing public health initiatives and medical research infrastructure in the United States.

Evidence Health

This organization serves as the prime awardee for the STACK and COMMONS clinical trial initiatives.

Courage Health

This firm is the prime awardee for the CINCH initiative tasked with streamlining patient contributions to clinical trials.

The details

Evidence Health will manage the STACK initiative to activate research sites and the COMMONS initiative to scale patient data usage. Meanwhile, the CINCH project led by Courage Health allows patients to contribute their own data to better identify and match with relevant clinical trials.

April 2026: FDA launched a pilot program using AI and cloud computing.
June 2026: HHS announced Operation TrialBlazer.
October 6, 2026: HHS announced the SURPASS program and its three associated projects.
November 30, 2026: Deadline for the submission of the SURPASS solution summary.

The Tech Race

The SURPASS program follows the pattern set by the broader Operation TrialBlazer framework to modernize federal medical research processes. This represents a shift from legacy trial methods toward cloud-integrated, AI-automated platforms that aim to replace slow, manual site activation.

The transition to AI-driven trial models could reduce the time patients wait for new medications to reach the market. These initiatives may also simplify how individuals share their data to participate in studies that were previously difficult to access.

The takeaway

Artificial intelligence is increasingly being deployed to lower the 90% failure rate currently seen in clinical drug development. By digitizing research sites and patient records, the government hopes to make medical breakthroughs more efficient and accessible.