Summary

Senior FTI personnel served on NIH’s Biomedical Computing and Health Informatics Scientific Review Group, reviewing SBIR and grant applications involving both basic research and applications of computational science to biomedicine, healthcare and their integration. The focus of the group was on solving biomedical and clinical problems using software engineering, telemedicine, human-computer interaction, advanced computing architectures, and clinical database development, maintenance, and data mining.

FTI personnel conducted in-depth reviews for advanced scientific study proposals that apply sophisticated information technology and engineering approaches to solving biomedicine, medical informatics, and health care problems. Reviews encompassed not only technology, staffing and management evaluations, but also an evaluation of commercialization potential and approach as well.

Tasks performed as part of NIH research grant and SBIR proposal review included evaluating the:

• Scientific and commercial significance of the proposed research
• Research approach proposed for the problem
• Innovation involved
• Experience and qualifications of the project investigators and researchers to perform the study
• Research environment to ensure that it will contribute to the probability of project success.
• Research protections for human subjects (where appropriate), and approach for including women, minority group members, and children in the study