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NIH awards 7 contracts worth up to $22.8M for COVID-19 digital health projects

Originally published in Becker's Hospital Review


The National Institutes of Health has contracted with seven companies and academic institutions to develop digital health solutions to help with the COVID-19 response.

The NIH selected seven recipients from nearly 200 project ideas covering public health needs, especially in underserved areas and populations. The seven contracts could be worth $22.8 million if all contracts are taken to the second phase, which should be completed in one year.

Here are the contracts:

1. Evidation Health for a health measurement platform to analyze patient-consented data including self-reported data and data from wearable devices to identify COVID-19 and distinguish it from influenza.

2. IBM for an integrated solution supporting contact tracing and verifiable health status reporting.

3. iCrypto for a smartphone-based platform that has irrefutable proof of testing, serologic and vaccination status for individuals.

4. PhysIQ for an artificial intelligence-based data analytics and cloud computing platform and FDA-cleared wearable devices that will create a personalized baseline index and then identify health status changes for COVID-19-positive patients.

5. Shee Atika Enterprises for a smartphone-based platform that monitors individuals with COVID-19 symptoms and supports those who test positive, especially in low-resource settings and underserved populations.

6. University of California San Francisco for a GPS-based retroactive contact tracing tool that alerts users about coming in contact with SARS-CoV-2-infected individuals and working with businesses and public health departments to reduce virus spread.

7. Vibrent Health for mobile applications, data integrations and validated machine learning algorithms to identify COVID-19 and differentiate it from influenza as well as contact tracing.