Association Of Public Health Laboratories, Inc. (The)

Association of Public Health Laboratories, Inc. (doing business as Association of Public Health Labs), a tax-exempt nonprofit based in Bethesda, Maryland, provides electronic laboratory reporting systems, public health informatics services, and laboratory capacity-building support to federal health and food-safety agencies as a prime recipient and contractor (95% of recent awards) with no set-aside designations across its federal footprint. APHL represents state, local, and territorial public health laboratories and serves as a critical infrastructure partner for federal disease surveillance, pandemic response, and food-safety initiatives.

APHL's customer concentration reflects a public-health and regulatory-affairs focus across HHS sub-agencies. The top five customer agencies by award count account for 37% of recent awards, dominated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (14 awards), the Food and Drug Administration (10 awards), and the Health Resources and Services Administration (5 awards). By dollar value, CDC Pittsburgh anchors the portfolio with a single $7.4 million award; the Department of Veterans Affairs Technology Acquisition Center follows at $2.9 million, and the Department of Homeland Security Immediate Office of the Secretary at $2.2 million. Recent contract work includes a $2.17 million firm fixed-price purchase order from HHS Office of the Secretary awarded September 28, 2026, for technical expertise and coordination support to the Integrated Consortium of Laboratory Networks (ICLN) through September 2031; a $252,000 purchase order from the Indian Health Service (December 2025) for electronic lab reporting services supporting the IHS Resource Patient Management System EHR through the AIMS platform; a $9.09 million definitive contract from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (February 2022) for development of a system to allow voluntary reporting of at-home COVID-19 test results to federal and state public health agencies; and a $58,140 purchase order from the Department of Veterans Affairs (December 2025) for electronic COVID-19 laboratory reporting services automating test-result reporting to state health departments.

APHL's federal grant footprint spans five prime cooperative agreements and project grants from HHS agencies, representing capacity-building and disease-surveillance initiatives. Recipients of multi-year cooperative agreements include the Office of the Director (through June 2030) for enhancing public health laboratory capabilities and capacities, and the Center for Global Health (through September 2028) for supporting laboratory systems and laboratory data management under the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The Office of Regulatory Affairs has funded APHL to build an integrated laboratory system advancing human and animal food safety (cooperative agreement through December 2026), including workforce development, ISO/IEC 17025:2017 accreditation support, and participation in the GENOMETRAKR network for whole-genome sequencing food-contamination investigations. APHL also hosted the 2023 GENOMETRAKR meeting and the 2024 Laboratory Flexible Funding Model meeting under project grants from ORA. On the sub-grant side, APHL receives funding from the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (April 2025) for wastewater surveillance expansion under the National Wastewater Surveillance System and from the Indiana Department of Health (March 2025 and March 2024) for epidemiology and laboratory capacity work under emerging infectious disease programs. APHL also subcontracted to Family Health International (February 2023) to provide technical support strengthening Indonesia's National Laboratory Public Health Laboratory Network.

Activity has remained modest in recent years — one contract award in 2026, six in 2025, three in 2024 — with six awards facing ultimate completion inside the next twenty-four months. SCI-reported invoicing on federal service contracts above the $150,000 threshold totaled $2.5 million across FY2022–FY2025 (prime records), declining from $1.2 million in FY2022 to $232,000 in FY2024, with a government-paid median hourly rate of $2,088.56 per hour across senior technical and advisory labor. The organization's federal services workforce as captured in SCI declined from 0.6 FTEs in FY2022 to 0.1 FTEs in FY2025, reflecting a shift toward higher-dollar, longer-term grant and contract vehicles rather than labor-hour-based service contracts. APHL operates as a direct prime across its portfolio with minimal subcontractor engagement, building delivery capacity internally or through partner organizations within the public health laboratory community.