Two NIH Components Eye Digital Health Platforms for COVID-19 Response

The National Institutes of Health has issued a request for information on digital platforms that could help two NIH organizations respond to the coronavirus pandemic and drive research into public health response technologies.

According to a special notice posted Tuesday, the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering will jointly host an interchange virtual meeting Friday for interested vendors to seek clarification from program and procurement staff on the requirement.

Project objectives include the development of a technological system to trace contacts with diagnosed and suspected COVID-19 patients, direct information access to a target audience and an approach to secure personally identifiable or protected health information.

NIH added that the project will use a hub-and-spoke model to allow each digital health platform to share digital assets such as de-identified information with an agency-backed central data hub for researchers.

Responses to the notice are due June 5.