BARDA program seeks to expand development of digital health tools and at-home diagnostic tests

Thinking up ways to better address future public health emergencies, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority’s (BARDA) Division of Research, Innovation and Ventures (DRIVe) has expanded a partner program focused on technology development to include digital health tools and at-home testing.

Opened under an EZ Broad Agency Announcement solicitation, BARDA’s latest additions to the Early Notification to Act, Control, and Treat (ENACT) program will seek out means to create digital solutions such as smartphone applications or web-based platforms for future outbreaks. Efforts will also be taken to develop disruptive platform technologies to offer reliable alternatives to central lab testing. Namely: at-home testing.

The latter case has become ever more important during the era of COVID-19, which caused major lockdowns and social distancing, resulting in a surge of telemedicine utilization. Despite this, routine testing still tends to require office, clinic or lab visits, putting more people at risk and reducing efficiency. By enhancing at-home testing, healthcare providers could further telemedicine by providing data-driven diagnosis without any need to travel or ship samples. DRIVe envisions a full suite of at-home testing to help diagnostics, chronic disease management and clinical research, depending on proposals.

On the other hand, the digital push would be meant to add an extra level of protection and bolster medical countermeasures during outbreaks, thanks to the quick scalability of such solutions. For this DRIVe seeks partners to help it with pandemic prediction and preparedness, infection detection and preventive health through new, effective and widely available tools.