NEW YORK — The National Institutes of Health said on Friday it is seeking applications from organizations interested in continuing the work of the Participant Technology Systems Center (PTSC) of the All of Us research program for a five-year period.
The All of Us program aims to enroll 1 million Americans willing to donate biological samples and share a variety of data from electronic medical records, surveys, wearables, and genetic testing that researchers can use to learn more about diseases and develop treatments. It opened up to participants in 2018.
The PTSC, initially funded in 2017 and currently run by Vibrent Health, is responsible for developing and maintaining the technical platforms by which people participate in and engage with the program, according to the NIH.
Specific duties of the center include providing secure systems for All of Us participant account creation and management, informed consent, and survey data collection; enabling participant-authorized data sharing from third-party data sources such as consumer apps; and providing multi-channel participant communications systems and workflows, for example through email or text messaging.
The NIH said that the PTSC is also responsible for providing software tools and services — including resources for scheduling; communications and case management; cohort, sub-cohort, and individual analytics; and participant account support — to All of Us study teams.
The center, the NIH added, manages all aspects of development or licensure, operations management, security and privacy, and testing and support for deployed systems for the All of Us program.
The NIH did not specify how much funding it has earmarked for the PTSC, but said that it expects to make one or more awards in fiscal year 2020 and that direct costs should not exceed $25 million a year. Additional details about the funding opportunity can be found here. Applications are due Feb. 14, 2020.