The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced SURPASS, a new program designed to cut clinical trial timelines, reduce costs, and shrink patient burden by using computational models, real-time data analysis, and automation. It's paired with three complementary projects to fix infrastructure problems like site capacity and fragmented data access.

• Current clinical trials take over a decade, cost up to $2 billion, and fail more than 90% of the time — SURPASS aims to compress timelines and lower costs through adaptive trial designs and continuous data analysis
• The program includes three technical areas: a "phaseless design engine" using digital twins to simulate outcomes before launch, a "continuous inference engine" for real-time trial adjustments, and automation tools to speed site activation and data handling
• Three companion projects tackle ecosystem barriers: STACK expands trial sites through AI-driven site activation, COMMONS builds national data infrastructure with privacy protections, and CINCH lets patients contribute and access their own real-world data