NITAAC offers an array of innovative technology commodities, services and solutions – including Virtual Reality solutions – through our award-winning Contract Holders on our Best in Class (BIC) Government-Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs). Booz Allen Hamilton, a NITAAC CIO-SP3 Contract Holder, recently developed groundbreaking virtual reality tools by joining forces with two of their high-profile clients: The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED).

A collaboration with the CDC, Virtual Laboratory keeps laboratory workers safe while allowing them to become familiar with the equipment, and practice procedures, and prepare for an emergency in a cost-efficient, standardized format. Users can repeatedly engage in protocols that are costly, high-risk or difficult to replicate in traditional live training. In the virtual environment, users can see factors that aren’t visible in real life, like airflow within a biosafety cabinet. Users receive real-time feedback on their performance, improving retention and muscle memory. Many practices demonstrated in the tool were previously only taught by senior laboratorians; the tool can reduce the time spent training colleagues, allowing senior laboratorians more time to focus on other valuable projects. The tool gives the CDC an unprecedented view of their workforce’s overall readiness and allows them to address any training gaps. Virtual Laboratory sets the stage for further adoption of virtual technology across public health and life sciences.

By teaming with the U.S. Navy, Emergency Medicine VR places users in realistic scenarios where they are required to treat and assess the condition of patients with life-threatening injuries. With over 100 wound-type configurations, users can experience a different combination of patient injuries each time they complete the training. This format allows the Navy to evaluate each user’s performance over time, including skills, reaction time, and strategic decision-making, all while minimizing the expense and logistics of traditional exercise training. The time and risk required is considerably less than that of traditional large-scale training and provide significant cost savings for the Navy. This powerful tool can be customized with new settings and protocols for advanced levels to train medical professionals, first responders, and enterprise clients.

Federal agencies can acquire this type of solution through Booz Allen Hamilton on the NITAAC Best in Class Government-Wide Acquisition Contract CIO-SP3. This Best in Class vehicle allows for ease of use and accelerates outcomes for agencies.

NITAAC provides any Department of Defense or civilian agency with three Best in Class GWACs to meet virtually every IT need. The NITAAC pool of pre-qualified Contract Holders have assisted over 64 federal departments with their information technology efforts. To learn more view our Contract Holder Capabilities page.