ConductScience · NIH ARISE-HIV LAUNCH Challenge
An NIH prize for scheduling HIV injections.
ConductScience built Capillary Health, scheduling software designed to help HIV programs give long-acting injections on time.
The recognition
Named a Phase 1 winner by the NIH Office of AIDS Research
The office announced the 35 winners of the ARISE-HIV LAUNCH Challenge on September 29, 2026. ConductScience’s entry, “Capillary Health: Logistics for HIV Care,” was one of them. The challenge asked for practical ways to get long-acting HIV medicines to more people and keep those people on schedule.
The challenge is part of ARISE-HIV (Advancing Research in Implementation Science to End HIV), an NIH Office of AIDS Research program. Read the challenge notice on nih.gov.
Source: the NIH Office of AIDS Research’s official winner announcement, posted on HeroX.
The challenge
Why long-acting HIV care depends on scheduling
According to the challenge notice, long-acting HIV medicines for prevention and treatment replace a daily pill with an injection. Cabotegravir is given every two months. Lenacapavir can be given up to six months apart.
Each injection has to happen inside its dosing window, a set span of days around the due date. The medicine, a clinician trained to give it and the person receiving it all have to be in one place inside that window.
A missed ride, a work shift or a clinic hours away can turn into a missed dose.
What we built
A working demonstration of Capillary Health
Capillary Health is designed to plan where a clinician, the medicine and the person meet, whether at a clinic, a pharmacy, a community site or a home. We built a demonstration of it for the challenge reviewers and made it public. The demonstration runs on public HIV and travel data and on sample schedules we wrote. It holds no patient data.
01
Access map
Finds the counties where HIV burden is high and the nearest Ryan White-funded HIV care site is a long drive away, 629 of 3,144 U.S. counties and county equivalents in the current version.
02
Regional match
Compares the communities a region can reach with the teams, hours and vans it has, then gives the reason behind each one it recommends.
03
Visit planner
Turns the recommended visits into a route for each team and proposes the date of each person’s next dose.
04
Rescue mode
When a team cannot work, Rescue mode shows which people risk missing their dosing window, then proposes a new plan for the day with the teams that remain.
What’s next
Phase 2 and partner sites
As a Phase 1 winner, ConductScience is invited to write a plan for putting Capillary Health into use and measuring the results. Plans are due in mid-February 2027. The Phase 2 winners will be named in late February.
If you run an HIV clinic, pharmacy, health department or community program and would consider being a Phase 2 partner, we would like to hear from you.
