On February 25th, NIH issued a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) (RFA-EB-13-002) seeking SBIR grant applications to develop medical technologies aimed at reducing disparities in achieving healthcare access and health outcomes.
The medical technologies to include medical devices, imaging systems, and other technologies need to be effective, affordable, culturally acceptable, and easily accessible to individuals in the disparity population who need and can use the technology.
The proposal response must involve a formal collaboration with a healthcare provider or other healthcare organization serving one or more health disparity populations during Phase I and Phase II.
Appropriate technologies may be new and innovative, or they may be existing technologies that have been redesigned based on the specific needs of the health disparity population. The technology must also be low-cost and affordable to the local hospital, community health center, primary care physicians, or individual patients in need.
Some of the specific technology needed can include:
- Telehealth technologies for remote diagnosis and monitoring
- Sensors for point-of-care diagnosis
- Devices for in-home monitoring
- Mobile portable diagnostic and therapeutic systems
- Devices that integrate diagnosis and treatment and can operate in low resource environments
- Integrated automated systems to assess or monitor a specific condition
A few examples can include technology developed to treat diabetes, devices to improve early detection of diseases, and low cost portable imaging for prevention and early detection of conditions.
It is estimated that $2 million will be available for awards with up to $200,000 total costs per year for Phase I and up to $400,000 total costs per year for Phase II.
The application due date is May 23, 2013 to September 23, 2013 with Letters of Intent due anytime from April 23, 2013 to August 23, 2013.
Go to http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-EB-13-002.html for more information.
