Future Program: Medics Autonomously Stopping Hemorrhage (MASH)

Background
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Biological Technologies Office (BTO) is issuing this Special Notice to inform the public about additional research areas of interest related to the forthcoming Medics Autonomously Stopping Hemorrhage (MASH) program.

The MASH program aims to address critical medical challenges faced during large-scale combat operations, particularly the stabilization of non-compressible torso hemorrhage (NCTH) in warfighters who suffer from survivable injuries.

Work Details
The MASH program seeks to develop capabilities that can autonomously find and stop bleeding in the torso without requiring a surgeon, specifically targeting NCTH.

Solutions must be able to stabilize bleeding for over 48 hours, allowing more time for evacuation to advanced medical care. The program will focus on locating and stabilizing internal bleeding using external, laparoscopic, endovascular, or hybrid approaches, leveraging novel autonomy and signal processing technologies along with existing sensor suites and robotic platforms.

The program consists of two Functional Areas (FAs):
- FA 1 focuses on system integration requiring existing robotic surgical devices and end effectors;
- FA 2 involves software and system development necessitating sensor selection, data perception, and system autonomy for bleed detection, localization, and stopping.

Offerors must integrate or retrofit end effectors onto selected devices, expose data interfaces for autonomy development, ensure reliable access to robotic surgical devices throughout the project duration, and incorporate FA 2 software and sensors into their systems.

Period of Performance
The MASH program will span a total of 36 months, consisting of a 24-month Phase 1 Base Period followed by a 12-month Phase 2 Option.

Place of Performance
The geographic location(s) for the performance of this contract have not been specified.