HHS, VA to Use Energy’s Supercomputers for Coronavirus Research

The departments of Energy, Health and Human Services and Veterans Affairs have launched a new big data analytics effort to coordinate and share coronavirus information. 

Called COVID-19 Insights Partnership, the project will create a framework for HHS and VA to leverage the DOE's high-performance computing and artificial intelligence resources for coronavirus research, HealthITAnalytics reported.

“Our nation’s understanding of COVID-19 has already benefitted greatly from our world-leading high-performance computing and artificial intelligence resources, and we look forward to continuing our coordination across Federal departments and agencies in the fight against this virus,” said Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette. 

The nation's fastest supercomputer, Summit, is located at Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It is expected to accelerate coronavirus research by running large-scale analyses on massive amounts of health data. 

Research efforts done through the collaboration will focus on vaccine and therapeutic development and outcomes, virology and other critical scientific topics related to coronavirus. HHS and VA are expected to provide new updates and information on projects as they become available. 

VA Secretary Robert Wilkie, a 2019 Wash100 awardee, said the Trump administration is rallying all available resources available to the government to fight the virus. 

“Veterans served this country by putting on the uniform and protecting American interests overseas, and now their health data will help us win the fight against COVID-19 here at home,” Wilkie said. 

HHS Secretary Alex Azar said Energy's technological resources will allow HHS to derive new insights from its coronavirus data, which he said has been advancing in volume and quantity. 

Energy also partnered with IBM and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to launch the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium, which was created the provide coronavirus researchers from different sectors with the computing resources they need.