The National Institutes of Health has awarded seven contracts to companies and academic institutions to develop digital health solutions to help address the COVID-19 pandemic. The work could lead to easy-to-use tools such as smartphone apps, wearable devices and software that can identify and trace contacts of infected people, track verified COVID-19 test results, and monitor the health status of infected and potentially infected people.
The National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB), both part of the NIH, selected the seven projects from nearly 200 different ideas. The projects represent a broad range of solutions to immediate public health needs related to the pandemic, and several focus on solutions for medically underserved communities and people with limited access to health care, who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
“The tools these organizations plan to develop could allow us to use containment efforts, such as COVID-19 testing, social distancing, and quarantine, precisely when and where they are needed. That could allow more people to return to a less restricted life and reduce the risk of devastating local outbreaks,” said NCI Director Norman E. “Ned” Sharpless, MD. “We are working as quickly as possible to help companies and universities develop innovative tools to achieve this goal.”
“Digital health technologies built around smartphones and wearable devices will play an essential role in guiding us through the COVID-19 pandemic,” said NIBIB Director Bruce J. Tromberg, Ph.D. “These platforms can acquire large amounts of data from many different sources, ranging from testing technologies to sensors. When this information is analyzed using cutting-edge computational and machine learning methods, everyone will have access to powerful new tools to reduce the risk of infection and return to normal activities.”
This effort is a key component of NCI and NIBIB’s congressionally supported responses to COVID-19. These include NCI’s $306 million effort to support serology science research, expand testing capacity, and develop other technologies for COVID-19, as well as NIBIB supplemental funding to address COVID-19.
The contracts will be awarded in two phases. The initial awards are for phase one and will be used to demonstrate the viability of the project. Following evaluation of phase one results, a contractual option for phase two would provide additional funding for further development of the awardee’s program and utility demonstration in response to the pandemic. If the seven projects went to the second phase, the total value of the contracts in this network would be 22.8 million dollars. The successful bidders have one year to complete both phases.
The proposed digital health tools will leverage multiple data sources, including wearable devices and COVID-19 serology and diagnostic test results. Each organization will share data and other assets in a central data center supported by the NIH in ways that protect people’s privacy. To stimulate additional research, researchers will have access to data stored at the center.
Because the collection of large digital health data sets has potential privacy implications, emphasis is placed on providing adequate privacy protections that allow personal health data to be collected without compromising civil liberties.
The seven digital health solutions are:
Evidation Health, Inc. (San Mateo, California): A health measurement platform to analyze a wide range of patient-consented data, including self-reported data and wearable device data, to detect COVID-19 and differentiate it from the flu.
IBM (Armonk, New York): An integrated solution that supports sophisticated contact tracing and verifiable health status reporting, generating a variety of key research data that simultaneously empowers users and facilitates research.
iCrypto, Inc. (Santa Clara, California): A smartphone-based platform to provide irrefutable proof of people’s testing, serology and vaccination status.
physIQ, Inc. (Chicago): An AI-based cloud computing and data analytics platform plus wearable devices approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to create a personalized benchmark that could indicate a change in health status for patients who test positive for COVID-19.
Shee Atiká Enterprises, LLC (Sitka, Alaska): A smartphone-based platform to monitor and support people with COVID-19 symptoms (who may need testing) and those who have already tested positive. The app will integrate a Bluetooth-enabled thermometer and pulse oximeter in an approach designed exclusively for low-resource settings and underserved populations.
University of California, San Francisco: A GPS-based retroactive contact tracing tool to alert users about contact with people infected with SARS-CoV-2, identify businesses that were visited by someone who later tested positive for COVID-19, and work with those businesses and public health departments on strategies to reduce the spread of the virus.
Vibrant Health (Fairfax, Virginia): Mobile applications, data integrations and validated machine learning algorithms to identify COVID-19 and differentiate it from the flu, and perform contact tracing using Wi-Fi technologies.
In a separate but related effort, NIBIB has awarded a contract to CareEvolution, LLC (Ann Arbor, Michigan) for SAFER-COVID, a digital health solution that integrates self-reported symptoms, consumer wearable device data, electronic health records and claims data, and COVID-19 test results to indicate whether users are ready to return to work and normal activities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
About the National Cancer Institute (NCI): NCI leads the National Cancer Program and NIH’s efforts to dramatically reduce the prevalence of cancer and improve the lives of cancer patients and their families, through research on cancer prevention and biology, the development of new interventions, and the training and mentoring of new investigators. For more information about cancer, visit the NCI website at cancer.gov or call the NCI contact center, the Cancer Information Service, at 1-800-4-CANCER (1-800-422-6237).
About the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB): NIBIB’s mission is to improve health by leading the development and accelerating the application of biomedical technologies. The Institute is committed to integrating the physical and engineering sciences with the biological sciences to advance basic research and healthcare. NIBIB supports research and development of emerging technologies within its internal laboratories and through grants, collaborations and training. More information is available on the NIBIB website: https://www.nibib.nih.gov.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 institutes and centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency that conducts and supports basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures of common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit nih.gov.
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