The following is a list of milestones from Cygnus’ origins in 1989 to present day:
1995–1999
Management of Information Resources on Therapeutic Agents for HIV and Opportunistic Infections, Division of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, NIAID, NIH, HHS. Cygnus facilitates the survey, identification, retrieval, acquisition, and organization of literature on candidate drugs and agents through literature searches. We develop and maintain a biomedical and chemical database, abstracting and indexing articles selected for inclusion, and expanding the system to include literature on TB. Cygnus designs web content and graphics.
Support Services for the 1998 and 2000 Surgeon General’s Reports on Smoking and Health: Tobacco Use Among U.S. Racial/Ethnic Minority Groups and Reducing Tobacco Use, Office on Smoking and Health (OHS), CDC, HHS. Cygnus provides a full range of scientific and technical editorial support on the production of these Reports.
National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) Clearinghouse, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, NIH, HHS. We develop and implement systems and procedures for processing information requests. Cygnus provides responses on scientific research sponsored by NCCAM; creates logo for Clearinghouse publications; writes, produces, and disseminates educational publications like NCCAM newsletter to healthcare professionals and the public; and manages NCCAM web content.
Tobacco Information Dissemination Program, OHS, CDC, HHS. Cygnus manages two major components: (1) We increase public access to information by designing and building online bibliographic database of citations and creating taxonomy used for categorizing smoking and health information within the CDC. (2) Cygnus operates media campaign resource center for tobacco control, responding to advertising materials requests, working in each state to develop media campaigns, and developing evaluative survey to collect resource center feedback.
1989
The firm is incorporated in Washington, D.C., and opens for business, taking offices at 14th and I Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. and is certified as a Women-Owned Small Business.
- Cygnus is awarded its first contract:
- 9th Special report to the U.S. Congress on Alcohol and Health, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
- We provide scientific / technical support and prepare this 350-page report, which summarizes / disseminates research and knowledge, and updates the Nation about alcohol abuse and alcoholism, and progress in the field of alcohol research.
1990–1994
The National Adoption Information Clearinghouse (NAIC), ACF, HHS. Cygnus operates NAIC, a national clearinghouse that collects, develops, and disseminates information to assist the public with all aspects of adoption, especially the adoption of children with special needs.
Study of the Impact on Service Delivery to Families with Substance Abuse Problems, ACF, HHS. This research effort assesses how changes in the incidence of substance abuse impacts human service programs administered by the Administration on Children, Youth and Families.
Development of Training and Education Materials on Drugs in the Workplace/Drug-Free Workplace Helpline, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP), SAMHSA, HHS. Cygnus creates award-winning Making Your Workplace Drug Free: A Kit for Employers. Our information specialists provide assistance to businesses, industry, unions, and community organizations to aid in the development and implementation of drug-free programs.
Alzheimer’s Disease Education and Referral (ADEAR) Center, National Institute on Aging, NIH, HHS. We operate this service which disseminates information on Alzheimer’s and its potential treatments to the public and healthcare professionals. Cygnus also provides support for on- and off-site scientific and administrative meetings.
Information Clearinghouse and Support Services, National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), NIH, HHS. We develop the annual program plan for the NIAMS Information Clearinghouse activities, which includes determining audience needs, information on treatment, maintaining the inventory of 200,000 publications, and creating audiovisual materials.
Support Services for the National Advisory Boards and Committees, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), NIH, HHS. Cygnus provides support in the areas of assessment, program planning, evaluation, publications, graphics design, meeting management, and administrative services.
Social Environments and Psychological Function in Older People: A Longitudinal Follow-up, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), NIH, HHS. Cygnus collects interview data and extensive background information on individuals who have been a part of a study on aging that began in 1964. We successfully meet unique challenges in finding the group's members for this follow-up.
2000–2004
Cygnus moves to new offices to accommodate our growing staff of more than 75. We have experts in: social sciences, behavioral research, epidemiology, IT, chemical and health databases, biomedical indexing, health policy, communications, publications, human capital, organizational development, employee engagement, and event planning.
General Research and Support Services Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), HHS. Cygnus provides a broad range of services for ~350 assignments such as: planning, management, and reporting on ~60 meetings of 1–3 days with 10–300 participants each year. Our scientific team prepare substantive health services research and policy materials and our evaluation team conducts focus groups. Cygnus’ IT staff support the use of Extranets for various AHRQ programs.
Substance Registration System Database Standardization and Update, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), HHS. Cygnus updates the FDA’s chemical structures for use in the Substance Registration System and verifies the chemical structures are correct with emphasis placed on adding and correcting stereochemistry to insure that a substance has a single unique entry.
Support Services for the 2004 Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health: The Health Consequences of Smoking, OHS, CDC, HHS. Cygnus continues to provide CDC with a full scope of scientific and technical editorial expertise and produce this year's Report.
2005-2009
Support Services for 2006 and 2010 Surgeon General’s Reports on Smoking and Health: The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke and How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease, OHS, CDC, HHS. Cygnus provides full range of scientific and technical editorial support on production of these Reports.
OWER Learning and Development Support Services, Office of Workforce Effectiveness and Resources (OWER), NIAID, NIH, HHS. Cygnus awarded contract to provide strategic, programmatic, and operational support to OWER in areas of learning and organizational development, through more than 200 offerings of activities including: Navigating NIAID, The Art of Leadership, Essentials of Supervision, Leadership and Executive Coaching, Unit-based Services, Focus on Leadership, Career Development, Retreats, Practical Management Skills Workshops, and Organizational Consulting Services.
Annual Reports, Center for Neutron Research (NCNR), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), U.S. Department of Commerce. Cygnus prepares five, full-color, 80–100-page annual reports for NCNR by designing the cover and interior layout, verifying all references, editing content, and production of publications.
Breast Cancer and the Environmental Research Program (BCERP), Needs Assessment National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and NCI, NIH, HHS. Cygnus conducts needs assessment for BCERP research translation and dissemination, to determine if existing educational materials are sufficient, or if new materials need to be developed and if so, what will be the most effective format(s).
2010-2014
Logistical Management Support for Evidence-based Practice Centers (EPC) Meetings with Johns Hopkins University. Cygnus continues to provide planning, management, logistics, and scientific materials development for this year's EPC Meetings.
Pandemic Influenza Digital Archive (PIDA) Pilot Project, Division of Library Services (DLS), NIH, HHS. Cygnus indexes and catalogues a large array of documents on influenza that were collected by NIAID Virologist, Dr. David Morens, for a new content management system. We populated a bibliographic database with data, PDFs, and links to full text of articles, and established indexing standards.
OWER Learning and Development Support Services, Office of Workforce Effectiveness and Resources (OWER), NIAID, NIH, HHS. We continue to provide strategic, programmatic, and operational support.
Organizational Framework, Bureau of Clinician Recruitment Service (BCRS), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), HHS. To assist BCRS in expanding programs and handle increased hiring, Cygnus writes position descriptions, aligns competencies, and provides a 360° management assessment process resulting in greater organizational capacity, performance, and employee satisfaction.
ChemIDplus Database Administration and Maintenance, NLM, NIH, HHS. Cygnus staff continues to be responsible for adding and maintaining chemical structures and biomedical data for NLM’s ChemIDplus and Drug Information Portal databases (http://chem.sis.nlm.nih.gov/chemidplus/).
Facilitation Services and Leadership Development Program for Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH), Office of the Director, NIH, HHS. Cygnus provides facilitation and training on personal differences and how they benefit the organization, conflict resolution, and change and stress management for a group of 15–20. Using Results Based Leadership and Action Learning Team approaches, we develop leadership competencies and enhance the team.
2015 to Present
Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Cygnus is awarded this multi-award IDIQ contract vehicle, allowing us to bid on SAMHSA task orders in two Domains.
- Domain IV: Communications Projects (small business); and
- Domain VI: Planning, Implementation, and Report Support Projects (small business) through our work with A-G Associates.
Senior Executive Development, U.S. Navy, U.S. Department of Defense. Cygnus provides leadership development to new Flag Officers with the MBTI®, 360° PROFILOR Feedback Report, and one-on-one coaching sessions, to offer insights into personal and professional development.
Snapshot Reports, SAMHSA Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT). We create overviews on substance abuse treatment in all 50 U.S. States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the territory of American Virgin Islands, that are all 508 Compliant.
Content Management System (CMS), U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Cygnus partners with Enterprise Knowledge, LLC to create and maintain a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) literature CMS for the VA's National Center for PTSD. The system will be fully customized to specifications and include access to full-text search capabilities, Public Search Interface, statistical reporting options, and integrated automated indexing and thesaurus management functions.
Biomedical literature indexing, National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health (NIH), HHS. Our Indexing Team continues its work to prepare biomedical and scientific bibliographic citations, as well as the transliteration of citations in 13 foreign languages.
Database Administration and Maintenance, NLM, NIH, HHS. We continue to add and maintain chemical structures and biomedical data for NLM’s ChemIDplus and Drug Information Portal databases (http://chem.sis.nlm.nih.gov/chemidplus/).
Editorial services, CSAT, SAMHSA. Under a contract with A-G Associates, Cygnus provides the CSAT teams with editing of their detailed compliance reports; reports that review each state's adherence to the requirements of CSAT for the SAMHSA Block Grant.
Evaluation, Our Community Listens (OCL). We provide evaluation design, data collection, analysis, and reports to OCL on the sustainability impacts of their Communication Skills Training course, as well as offer program and expansion assessment.