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NOTE: solicitation for 2008 contract topics is now closed. Contract topics for 2009 will be released in the summer of 2008.
In 2006, the NCI changed their procedure for selecting SBIR contract topics. Currently, each Division focuses on gaps in research that, if addressed, would better assist in meeting NCI objectives. An overview of DCCPS topics are below. For specific contract requirements for these topics and a complete list of topics across NIH, see: ( http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/funding/sbir.htm ).
DCCPS' 2008 priority area is Transforming Cancer Care through Medical Informatics Technology . Its goal is to develop medical informatics infrastructures in cancer care that will make maximum use of NCI investments in cancer communication, statistical modeling, surveillance, cancer treatment, clinical trials, and health systems research. The objective is to ease the movement of medical evidence from bench to bedside, and back, in order to create a virtual laboratory to continuous improve quality.
Development of these infrastructures would
- enhance NCI's ability to measure cancer incidence, morbidity, survival, and mortality;
- expand the knowledge about cancer case locations, screening and treatment facilities, and high-risk behaviors that are critical in understanding the patterns and determinants of cancer, its risk factors, and its outcomes; and
- maximize opportunities for intervention as early as possible in the cancer control cycle to take advantage of leverage points in prevention, early detection, treatment, and ongoing survivorship.
Applications for the following contract topics must be received by 5:00 PM Eastern Time, November 5, 2007. http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-07-081.html
Topic 246: Integrating Patient-Reported Outcomes in Hospice and Palliative Care Practices
Overview : Numerous reports have identified the need to improve the management of symptoms and health-related quality of-life (HRQOL) problems in cancer patients whether these problems are related to treatment or the course of disease. This need is particularly great for cancer patients who suffer from pain and other significant symptoms, or who are at the end of life. Cancer patients falling into these categories, furthermore, are often and increasingly cared for not exclusively by oncology specialists, but by health care professionals specializing in hospice and palliative medicine. This presents both promises and challenges for pain and symptom management, since it adds to the number, complexity, and settings of the interactions between patients and various health care providers. Effective collection and communication of data on patients' symptoms and deficits in HRQOL becomes an even more critical challenge in such a system. For example, the fact that most of the care delivered by hospices to dying patients occurs in their homes, heightens the need for effective ways to assess symptoms and to make such data available to health care providers in a timely manner.
Addressing this issue, the short-term goal of this project requires the offeror to develop integrated, ongoing patient-reported outcome (PRO) assessment methods to provide timely, efficient, individualized information for monitoring patient progress and improving decision making in the hospice and palliative care setting. The long-term goal is to develop computerized PRO data measurement and information systems for use by clinicians and patients. Such systems would measure cancer-specific symptoms and HRQOL domains using well-validated instruments as well as methodologies such as item banking and computer adaptive testing administration, in order to gather patient-reported data for use in clinical practice. The systems would also ideally provide decision support for clinicians, and be integrated with electronic health records across various health care providers (e.g., hospice and palliative care clinicians, oncologists) and settings (home, inpatient hospice, nursing home, clinic, hospital). The goal of this project is to develop a measurement and information system that specifically addresses the unique challenges raised in pain and symptom management and the care of dying patients, and meets the needs of health care professionals in various settings where hospice and palliative care patients receive care.
247: Portable e-Technology Diet and Physical Activity Tools for Consumers
Overview : The short-term goal of this project is to develop a prototype of an innovative portable assessment and intervention tool for energy balance (integrative diet and physical activity), and a website prototype for monitoring the work accomplished with this tool. The portable e-technology tool envisioned will incorporate both self-report and “objective” [e.g., motion detection, tracking vital signs, analysis of physiology, GPS, digital camera, etc.] indicators. The portable e-technology tool needs to be marketable to individuals (i.e., consumers) interested in physical activity, diet, and/or weight loss behavior change, as well as, to health researchers. The long-term goals are to 1) develop and evaluate the portable e-technology tool and an interactive network platform that integrates the tool and 2) develop a tracking component for the network.
248: Patient-Centered Coordinated Cancer Care System
Overview: The goal of this project is to develop an automated care coordination program that will 1) allow all cancer care team members to view and participate in the coordination of cancer care during the diagnostic process, 2) assist patients in seeking needed evaluation of an abnormality, and 3) track relevant patient health status, outcomes data, symptom management recommendations, and decision points in real time and in full view of the patient and care team.
This represents a slight modification of the 2006 version of this contract topic that focused on the palliative care process rather than the diagnostic process.
The 2006 version of this SBIR topic focused on using the Veteran's Health Administration VHA's electronic medical record (VISTA) as an infrastructure to which mobile technology linked care coordinators and patients managing cancer symptoms and pain.(2007,2002) Access to community resources, coordination of communication among providers, and the facilitation of dialogue during an evolving stage of care were all requirements underlying implementation of this mobile technology and were addressed in the first version of this SBIR initiative to replicate the VHA's symptom management technology for use in the community. The requirements address care needs at many points in the Cancer Care Continuum.(2003) For example, VISTA has shown promise for the effective management of primary care patients and implementation of cancer screening in populations served by Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) but the coordination of community resources, and communication among providers are critical needs during the diagnostic process as well.(2003,2005,2006) This current topic builds on the experience with the symptom management and Vista system and FQHCs to provide patient-centered bridging technology that gives patients the information they need, when they need it so they can successfully navigate through the diagnostic process between an abnormal cancer screening test or symptomatic presentation and its resolution as a benign abnormality or a cancer diagnosis. |
