The NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for FY 2021-2025 discusses how NIH supports the development of new or improved interventions and technologies along with repurposing existing technologies to monitor and reduce disease risk.
Advances in data science that will enhance analytical capacity and speed and will help aid decision-making by patients and providers. These advances will improve disease prevention and health promotion strategies at the individual, family community, and population health levels.
Today, most information used to make decisions in current medical practice is collected at a specific moment in time and in a clinical setting which provides a limited view of an individual’s health and disease risk.
Heart rate and motion sensors in smart watches and other wearable devices are examples of consumer technologies that can provide continuous feedback. These devices are able to detect underlying signs of illness and response to interventions, including medications and lifestyle changes faster than conventional methods that may require weeks or months to provide actionable feedback.
NIH supported researchers have developed a wearable sensor made of stretchable microelectronics that uses ultrasound to measure blood pressure continuously, whether the wearer is resting or active.
These devices should help identify people at risk of stroke and heart disease by providing patients and physicians with more frequent and accessible information on blood pressure, including fluctuations that occur may occur through the day.
NIH’s goal is to develop Public Private Partnerships (PPP) to accelerate advances that the agency can’t readily achieve alone. For example, NIH, FDA, biopharmaceutical companies and nonprofit organizations have launched the Accelerating Medicines Partnership (AMP) to increase the number of new diagnostics and therapies. Studies are underway for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis/Lupus, for type 2 diabetes, and a new initiative has been launched for schizophrenia.
The NIH Science and Technology Research Infrastructure for Discovery, Experimentation, and Sustainability (STRIDES) Initiative is an effort to provide NIH with cost effective access to state-of-the-art cloud based data storage and computational capabilities, tools, and expertise.
NIH has established PPPs with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. NIH anticipates forming additional industry partnerships through STRIDES to broaden access to services and tools.
Go to https://nih.gov/sites/default/files/about-nih/strategic-plan-fy2021-2025-508.pdf for the NIH-Wide Strategic Plan for Fiscal Years 2021-2025