Project Summary/Abstract: Overall The Point-of-Care Technology Research Center in Primary Care proposes to further develop a national “center-without-walls” for rapid transformation of emerging point-of-care technologies into commercially viable, clinically focused solutions for improving primary healthcare. The Center was established by the Consortia for Improving Medicine through Innovation and Technology (CIMIT), a consortium of research institutions, universities, military medicine centers and hospitals throughout the US with international affiliates at University of Manchester-UK (MIMIT), Barcelona (The Center for the Integration of Medicine and Innovative Technologies in Catalonia) and Singapore (A*-STAR/Eastern Health Alliance). CIMIT established the Point-of- Care Technology Research Center in Primary Care under a Cooperative Agreement (U54) award from National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) in 2012 and the Center created a national network of research sites, harnessing the power of multidisciplinary collaboration to speed the translation of high-impact research into primary care practice and broader dissemination by commercially licensable opportunities. We will build upon our proven approach to needs-driven primary healthcare technology innovation to expand and significantly enhance our Center. The Center’s overall objective is to build upon the progress made under the previous U54 award and offer expanded support to teams through the integrated functional elements of the proposed enhanced Center. In so doing, the Center will offer a portfolio of synergistic support to teams with innovative solutions through defined interfaces and hand offs throughout the innovation process while continuously improving the Center’s processes of finding, funding, facilitating, and following projects. The long-term goal is to create a dynamic, sustainable national network that identifies key unmet needs in the delivery of primary care as well as promising emerging technologies and then to accelerate their translation into clinical applications for broad impact in primary care medicine through high-quality translational and clinical research.

Projects Narrative: Just as the mandate for primary care is growing with an aging population and an increase in people afflicted by chronic disease, the number of primary care providers is shrinking. This imbalance puts huge constraints on primary care capacity, limiting access and fragmenting care, jeopardizing health outcomes by delaying treatment, and complicating follow-up regarding treatment recommendations. The use of appropriately-designed point-of-care technologies in primary care environments will address these problems by increasing the capacity of primary care physicians to care for more patients and help them achieve better health.