Healthcare IT

Personalis has received an additional task order from the Department of Veterans Affairs to perform whole genome sequencing and bioinformatics analysis services as part of VA’s program to study how genetic variations can affect the health of former service members. The company said Thursday it will use its algorithms and computing infrastructure at the firm’s laboratory in Menlo […] More

The Department of Health and Human Services has awarded $350,000 in cooperative agreements to help private and public healthcare sector partners address cybersecurity threats and develop an information sharing ecosystem. HHS said Tuesday its Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology awarded a competitive agreement to the Ormond Beach, Florida-based National Health Information Sharing and Analysis […] More

A consortium led by CSRA has expanded a supercomputing cluster at the National Institutes of Health’s Center for Information Technology in an effort to help NIH researchers process and analyze large data sets. The company and its partners added the latest computing power increment to the Biowulf infrastructure that NIH uses to perform computations in genomics, image processing, statistical analysis and biomedical research projects, […] More

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology within the Department of Health and Human Services has awarded a total of $1.5 million to seven recipients under two cooperative agreement programs in an effort to bolster flows of health information. HHS said Wednesday the funds will create standards-based systems to facilitate health information exchanges and lessons learned […] More

Baltimore, Maryland-based biotechnology company PapGene has secured a potential $2.2 million contract from a National Institutes of Health center to study and commercialize a recurrent bladder cancer surveillance test. PapGene said Tuesday it will receive $299,824 funds from NIH’s National Cancer Institute under the first phase of the Fast-Track Small Business Innovation Research contract to demonstrate the accuracy and clinical validity of […] More

BrainScope has received marketing clearance from the Food and Drug Administration for a medical device the neurotechnology company designed to help clinicians examine traumatic brain injury cases. Bethesda, Maryland-based BrainScope said Monday it developed the Ahead 300 multi-modal device in collaboration with the Defense Department. “FDA clearance of the Ahead 300 is a bellwether moment in our company’s […] More

The Defense Department has awarded Capricor Therapeutics a $2.4 million grant to develop a process to produce cardiosphere-derived cell exosomes. Capricor said Monday it plans to file an investigational new drug application with the Food and Drug Administration in 2017 for the use of CAP-2003 to treat ocular graft-versus-host disease. “As we advance and expand our exosomes program, this grant […] More

Charlotte, North Carolina-based healthcare strategies developer Premier has found that U.S. hospitals conduct patient education, staff training, screening, surveillance and reporting to prepare for a potential outbreak of the Zika virus. Premier said Monday health system C-suite leaders have led efforts to address the disease based on guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “As we monitor the implications for the possible […] More

Chenega has been awarded a $9 million contract by the Defense Health Agency to help DHA transition service local area network assets to the Medical Community of Interest enclave. The Alaska native village corporation’s healthcare services business will work to collect data, conduct asset inventory, coordinate with onsite and remote medical treatment facilities under the firm-fixed contract, the […] More

Deloitte‘s response to the Department of Health and Human Services‘ blockchain ideation challenge focuses on six current “pain points” in the Health Information Exchange and the potential use of blockchain to address them. Deloitte said Thursday HIE users face challenges in the difficulty to establish a trust network, costs per transaction, the lack of a Master Patient Index, inconsistent data standards, […] More

Cherokee Nation Technology Solutions has secured a $17.1 million firm-fixed-price contract to provide support services to the armed forces health surveillance branch of the public health division within the Defense Health Agency‘s healthcare operations directorate. The Defense Department said Tuesday the contractor will help DHA conduct health surveillance for DoD and assist in the analysis, interpretation and dissemination of […] More