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

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.