Tufts Medical Center Parent, Inc.

Tufts Medical Center Parent, Inc., doing business as Tufts Medical Center, is a tax-exempt non-profit academic medical center in Boston, Massachusetts that operates as a prime recipient on federal research grants and contracts focused on biomedical research, clinical trials, and healthcare services—the large majority through NIH and AHRQ vehicles rather than traditional procurement contracts. The organization competes in full-and-open market, not set-asides, with 72% of its 656 recent federal awards held as prime recipient or prime contractor.

Tufts Medical Center's federal footprint is dominated by research grant work. The National Institutes of Health accounts for approximately 202 awards across its institutes, with the National Institute on Aging (51 awards), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (44 awards, $5.4 million combined potential value), and National Cancer Institute (32 awards, $3.8 million) anchoring activity in cardiovascular research, aging, oncology, and neurological disease. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality is the single largest funder by dollar value (26 awards, $20.6 million combined potential value), reflecting Tufts' role as recipient on evidence-based practice center contracts and healthcare delivery research IDIQs including Evidence-based Practice Centers III (15 task orders, $16 million combined potential value) and related indefinite delivery vehicles. The Department of Veterans Affairs, Veterans Integrated Service Network 1 funds eye pathology testing services through a Blanket Purchase Agreement (ceiling $296,000, established October 2023, running through October 2028) with three BPA calls issued totaling $90,000 since award.

Representative grant work spans multiple therapeutic areas grounded in Tufts' clinical and research strengths. A $8.3 million National Institute on Aging Cooperative Agreement (July 2026–June 2031) funds development of a video-based advance care planning educator program for older adults and those with Alzheimer's disease. A $3.28 million National Cancer Institute Project Grant (August 2025–July 2029) supports development of smartphone-based embodied conversational agents to improve guideline-concordant follow-up care for patients with abnormal cervical cancer screening results. A $1.528 million National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute grant (August 2025–May 2030) funds machine learning methods to automate aortic stenosis diagnosis from cardiac ultrasound imaging. Tufts also holds a $3.225 million Defense Health Agency grant (July 2023–June 2027) to evaluate the Droplette Micromist Technology Device for deep tissue treatment of pressure ulcers. A $506,415 National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases award funds research on pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis of tick-transmitted babesiosis, with Trustees of Tufts College (Tufts University School of Medicine) named as sub-recipient providing tick-borne B. microti stabilates.

On the contract side, Tufts Medical Center holds positions on evidence-based practice center IDIQs and healthcare quality research vehicles. A definitive contract with Veterans Integrated Service Network 1 (July 2026, ultimate completion June 2031) carries a $39,218 ceiling for educational cost services under Executive Order 14398 pricing. Place of performance spans Tufts Medical Center's Boston location and affiliated clinical sites.

Tufts Medical Center operates as a sub-recipient on numerous NIH and other federal research grants led by universities and independent research institutions. Recent grant sub-awards include work under Boston Medical Center, Columbia University, Northwestern University, and Trustees of Tufts College on projects ranging from cervical cancer screening disparities to advanced cardiovascular imaging, lymphoma outcome modeling, and long-life family genetics studies. As a sub-recipient, Tufts provides clinical trial site coordination, patient recruitment and screening, data management and statistical analysis, specimen processing, and biospecimen banking. The organization also subcontracts to federal prime researchers as a clinical or analytical partner—for example, providing electronic health record surveillance support for Lyme disease case identification under The General Hospital Corporation, and contributing systematic review methodology to CARB-X under Trustees of Boston University.

Activity has grown in recent years (26 awards in 2022 to 78 in 2024), with recent expansion driven by growth in NIH extramural research portfolio and healthcare policy research vehicle placements. Tufts Medical Center maintains standing relationships with 53 distinct federal agencies, though HHS (through NIH, AHRQ, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) accounts for the vast majority by both count and dollar value. The organization's research intensity and academic medical center status position it as a clinical research site and outcomes research partner across NHLBI cardiovascular research, NCI oncology prevention and screening trials, NIA aging and dementia research, and NIAID infectious disease vaccine and treatment studies. No significant recompete exposure exists in the next twenty-four months (22 awards with combined potential value of $40,000 completing).