There still continues to be an alarming disproportionate burden of illness among minority and other health disparity populations. Therefore overcoming persistent disparities in healthcare access and health outcomes remains a foremost challenge.
On October 8, 2014, the National Institute on Minority Health Disparities (NIMHD) www.nimhd.nih.gov issued the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) (RFA-MD-15-003) “Technologies for Improving Minority Health and Eliminating Health Disparities” at http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-MD-15-003.html.
The FOA invites eligible small business concerns to submit Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant applications that propose to develop a product, process or service for commercialization with the aim to reduce disparities in healthcare access and health outcomes.
The NIMHD initiative is intended to stimulate ideas and technologies from small business concerns and non-profit research institutions to develop a product, process, or service for commercialization with the aim to reduce disparities. Appropriate technologies should be effective, affordable, culturally acceptable, and deliverable to racial and ethnic minorities, low income, and rural populations.
Technologies may be new and innovative or they may arise from existing technologies that have been redesigned based on the needs of one or more disparity populations. The technology must be an improvement over the current quality of care for a health disparity population by overcoming physical, knowledge, infrastructure, economic, and cultural barriers.
The technology must also be affordable to the local hospital, community health centers, primary care providers, hospital emergency department staff, specialty physicians, nurse practitioners, providers of mental health, behavioral health services, patient navigators, and others in medically underserved communities and regions.
NIMHD intends to commit $1,000,000 in FY 2015 to fund 3 to 6 awards. The letter of Intent is due December 23, 2014, with the application due January 23, 2015.