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The National Cancer Institute (NCI), Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS), plans to procure on a sole source basis, biomedical computing support services from Information Managem... The National Cancer Institute (NCI), Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS), plans to procure on a sole source basis, biomedical computing support services from Information Management Services, Inc., 3901 Calverton Blvd, Suite 200, Calverton, MD 20705. At this time, there is no solicitation to be issued. This notice is not a request for competitive proposals or quotes. NCI plans to process the acquisition in accordance with FAR 15 and FAR Part 6. Only one award will be made from the solicitation. The NCI DCCPS is a part of the National Institutes of Health. NCI DCCPS has an ongoing need of support for research efforts conducted by the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS) of the National Cancer Institute (NCI). The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program is housed in this Division. The National Cancer Act of 1971 authorizes collection of cancer registry data and mandates that they report population-based statistics. This acquisition supports the collection, processing, and reporting of these and other data. The NCI anticipates that Information Management Services, Inc. (IMS) is the only responsible source with the expertise to fulfill all the areas of this requirement. IMS began supporting DCCPS over 10 years ago and is an expert in the types of work conducted by DCCPS. The most critical aspects of IMS are that they have: 1. In-depth knowledge of the SEER data set and reporting requirements, 2: Have developed and continue to develop several key software products customized to collect surveillance data that are critical to the collection of cancer trends, 3: Have developed and continue to develop software products specialized to link and manage surveillance data, 4: Have developed software and web-based tools to display and analyze surveillance data, 5. Have all necessary legal arrangements with entities essential for the SEER mission that enable efficient, accurate and timely work performed by DCCPS to meet its mission requirements. 1. IMS has extensive in-depth knowledge of the SEER products. Since IMS has worked closely with the SEER program continuously, they know the complex processes for data collection, quality control and release of these data products to the public and research community. Their expertise includes knowledge of data use and data quality standards, understanding and collaborating with external partners on changing data items to be collected. This includes changes to data reporting requirements by governing bodies such as North American Association of Central Cancer Registries (NAACCR) and the cancer surveillance community adapt to new or expanding data collection. Their knowledge enables them to work with the NCI in an efficient and timely manner to address these changes as needed. 2. IMS has developed and is currently developing and maintaining software systems for data collection and linkage that are critical to the mission of DCCPS and NCI, that is, reporting U.S. cancer trends over time. These include: • SEER Data Management System (SEER*DMS) was developed under NCI direction to standardize and improve quality of SEER data collection at the central cancer registries. This system is also used for data collection activities throughout DCCPS. IMS is the sole developer of the SEER*DMS system which is the primary key system for registry operations that fulfill SEER requirements. SEER*DMS is continuously undergoing enhancements as new data items or linkages are included. The system holds SEER-wide standard base algorithms and functionalities across all central cancer registries as well as registry specific functionalities and algorithms that manage registry specific workflows. A new contractor would need to have expert in-depth knowledge of the base code, the registry specific variations in the code and understand how each variation impacts registry operations. NCI and the registries would also need to test and verify this in-depth knowledge before a new contractor can safely and accurately take over services within the system for a central cancer registry. IMS currently houses all registry SEER*DMS system instances in two data centers for security and IT redundancy purposes. They maintain the infrastructure and security of the environment for SEER*DMS and all other systems that provide support for the SEER Program. A new contractor would have to replicate and duplicate this same environment with two data centers and then migrate all SEER registries onto new SEER*DMS systems that they would support. This would be a major and disruptive duplication process for the government. Each migration to a SEER*DMS system currently averages 18 months. Further the process by which the registries use SEER*DMS in the enclave required years of discussions and legal work to develop agreements with each of the cancer registries in SEER. IMS is continuously updating the SEER*DMS system with new requirements for data (e.g. pharmacy, genomics, treatment etc.). These projects all require implicit knowledge held by staff at IMS and ongoing knowledge and history of the development and implementation process and the associated agreements is critical. In addition to developing and maintaining the main SEER*DMS system for all SEER central cancer registries, IMS currently provide a full pipeline solution for direct transfer of data from healthcare facilities to central cancer registry enclaves. This pipeline includes but is not limited to, creating the necessary legal agreements directly with healthcare facilities, implementing technical solutions through tools and secure file transfer protocols to transfer data directly from the facility to the registry enclaves, and ensuring ongoing maintenance and security of all direct data transfer pipelines. This is a crucial process and technical solution that IMS provides for central cancer registries that ensures an efficient and improved process of registry data collection. Without this process registries would have a break in their current data processing operations. IMS has worked with the National Cancer Institute’s Center for Biomedical Informatics and Information Technology (CBIIT) to secure an Authority to Operate (ATO) for SEER*DMS as a moderate system. This certifies that IMS meets all federal security requirements for the system and technical infrastructure. If the incumbent contractor loses a re-competition, then a new ATO is required for the system by the winning bidder. The process to secure a new ATO with a new contractor would necessitate extensive cost and efforts to the government. • IMS has also developed a version of SEER*DMS called DMS*Lite. This was developed for the National Childhood Cancer Registry (NCCR) - a critical component of the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative (CCDI). DMS*Lite facilitates collection of data from nearly all childhood cancer patients in the US into a central system that will enable linkages with critical new data sources. As for the larger SEER program, having a centralized and single process improves accuracy of linkages and better supports both the registries and the external partners submitting their data. IMS is responsible for developing DMS*Lite and the interconnection agreements has enabled the sharing of these data. Without the centralized process and availability of DMS*Lite, this initiative would be at risk thereby not having timely data on childhood cancer cases. 3. IMS has developed several proprietary software products. Several DCCPS initiatives rely on the proprietary software such as the SEER-Linked Virtual Tissue Repository (VTR) and tracking datasets generated from the SEER-CMS linkages. Without IMS and their software tools, many processes for SEER would be at risk including: The data release process, development of any data products would be delayed or the data quality would suffer. Further the work done with DMS and Match*Pro enables efficient and secure linkages essential to SEER in which many partners would not otherwise participate. The downstream consequence is that both the government and external researchers would be unable to access timely cancer surveillance data- a primary mission of NCI as required by the National Cancer Act of 1973. As the SEER Program is a main contributor to the United States Cancer Statistics (USCS), inability to continue to collect and analyze data to the degree conducted currently would imperil NCI’s ability to provide current and correct information to the USCS. 4. IMS has developed critical websites and software integrated with the SEER data. IMS develops and manages several webpages and links on the SRP and SEER websites which would be disrupted with a new contractor. Both registries and researchers rely on the accuracy and timeliness of this information. Finally, these websites facilitate the public being able to access and view cancer data and trends. IMS maintains several important complex interactive websites and software products used for statistical analysis. These website and products have evolved over time and are modified to accommodate improved statistical methodology and methods of presentation. For many of the interactive websites the data that feeds the output is updated every year. NCI vitally depends on the use of this software to produce our updates of cancer and cancer related statistics, which are conducted under specified deadlines. One example is SEER*Explorer, which is the primary way the public accesses SEER data. It is an interactive website that can displays various cancer statistics and trends. It would be disruptive have another contractor take over the maintenance, continuous updating, and deployment of these websites and software products, and adherence to deadlines would likely be compromised. IMS has also played a critical role in the development and support of the National Childhood Cancer Registry- a key component of the Childhood Cancer Data Initiative (CCDI). They have developed analogous tools (NCCR*Explorer, NCCR SEER*Stat), have worked with both SEER and NPCR (non-SEER) registries to collect data within the secure enclave environment, create a consolidated set of data to feed into the applications. In addition, they have been integral to the NCCR Data Platform- through data consolidation, data cleaning and linkages across multiple registries and novel data sources. 5. The need of SRP is to ensure that cancer surveillance data is collected in a timely and secure fashion. SRP is mandated to release cancer data to the public and to provide de-identified research sets. All of these data collection activities rely on legal agreements between IMS and other parties to meet state data release requirements. IMS initiates this process and works directly with the registries to develop and execute these agreements. Data collection for cancer registries is a complex effort requiring coordination. For example, a registry first receives data from legally required reporting sources such as doctors, hospitals, pharmacists, etc. A registry also engages in reconciliation between bordering states, linkages with other data sources and the need to edit and re-abstract data over time. IMS has tools such as SEER*DMS that make this process efficient and the data from multiple sources easier to adjudicate using their interface. Their tools facilitate the collection, abstraction, and data submission to NCI. Use of such tools developed by IMS also allows the SEER Program continued enhancement in order to meet the evolving needs of the international oncology research community. To date, IMS has: Interconnection Security Agreements with states to receive data for the National Childhood Cancer Registry Initiative. These took an average of 17 weeks to establish with a maximum time of 42 weeks. Interconnection Security Agreements with states to establish data transfer into DMS. These took an average of 37 weeks to establish with one agreement taking 9 months to establish. Agreements with commercial entities for data acquisition and transfer. Interagency agreements with Social Security Administration (SSA), National Death Index (NDI) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Key partnerships to provide geocoding and residential history data. The risk to the government is that all current agreements would be nullified and data transmission (including twice annual data submission to the SEER program as well as all linkages with external partners) would be delayed as SRP cannot receive any data without these agreements. The Government has established IMS as an honest broker/trusted third party to receive and link data on their behalf. In the absence of a current agreement, data collection activities would be at risk. For example, data linkages with third parties would stop, other key activities that support data linkages beyond SEER and with the extramural research community could not continue. The enclave which stores the data and the software and data management process would also be at risk. The SEER data submission is a mission critical task and delay of this submission impacts both internal and external consumers of the data which includes other Federal agencies and extramural researchers as well as impairs the ability of the NCI to respond effectively to Congressional requests. Given the length of time required to establish these legal agreements, it is likely that data transmission would be severely delayed or paused until a new contractor was able to get new agreements in place. A new contractor would be unable to have all agreements in place at the same time further increasing the delay. Interruptions of data transmission during a transition period would also create statistical issues in our surveillance estimates and it would be unclear what proportion of the population we have data for. SRP may not be able to release surveillance statistics that are reported under mandate. Any delay in re-establishing new agreements creates a downstream problem for researchers who use our data and rely on its accuracy and completeness for research and analysis. The Contractor shall provide/perform the following, unless otherwise noted: TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS: The objective of this acquisition is to obtain non-research and development (non-R&D) information technology and analytic services for the DCCPS, NCI. These services are in several broad areas such as: analytical support, systems development, data management and maintenance, computing infrastructure maintenance and support, statistical methodology and programming support, and support developing and maintaining websites. The acquisition will also provide project management of these projects in DCCPS. Specifically, the Contractor shall provide support that fits into eight task areas. They are: Task Area 1. Project Management/Core Services Task Area 2. Data Management Task Area 3. Computer Programming Task Area 4. Computing Infrastructure Services Task Area 5. Website Development Task Area 6. Systems Design and Development Task Area 7. Reports and Manuscripts Preparation Task Area 8. Statistical Methodology and Program Support There are several research programs within DCCPS that will need support from this acquisition. The prominent support is required for the Surveillance Research Program (SRP) which plans, directs, coordinates, and evaluates a program of cancer surveillance sites and activities involving the collection and analysis of data. The program is responsible for producing rates of cancer incidence, mortality, and cancer-related statistics in diverse regions and populations of the United States. The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program, a major component of the SRP, collects cancer data on a routine basis from designated population-based cancer registries in various areas of the country. Information Management Services, Inc. (IMS), the current contractor, developed and maintained the data collection software, SEER*DMS. SEER*DMS supports all the core functions of a central cancer registry such as importing, editing, linking, and consolidating data and producing reports. Data editors and coders view and update cancer data though an intuitive graphical user interface. This system supports data collection of over 800,000 cancer cases per year from 18 central cancer registries covering nearly 50% of the US population. Throughout SEER’s 50 years, more than 17,000 publications have used SEER data. This contractor provides public use datasets and generates customized data sets in support of requests from researchers to conduct these analyses. As of May 2018, the migration to and use of SEER*DMS is required by the SEER central cancer registries to collect and submit their data to NCI. In addition to developing the data collection system, successful data collection relies on linkages to other data sources. These other sources provide complimentary data to improve the breadth, depth, and quality of cancer surveillance data. Linkages are conducted with other Government agencies such as Social Security Administration, Department of Motor Vehicles and National Death Index as well as industry partners such as pharmaceutical or genomic data firms. These linkages depend on legal agreements between this contractor and the cancer registries. These agreements have been established which allows for data transmissions to the SEER central cancer registries which then includes it as part of the SEER data submission. IMS currently has legal agreements in place with many entities to facilitate receiving the data to be linked and manages the data linkage process. The NCI has obtained contractual services for this work for many years. This is a follow-on requirement to an active Task Order 75N91021D00017/75N91023F00002. No alternatives to contracting this work are feasible. For example, NCI cannot bring all the services in-house because the cancer registry data cannot be held by the Government. Refer to Attachment 1 Draft Statement of Work. This notice is not a request for competitive proposals or quotes. However, if any interested party, especially small businesses, believes it can meet the above requirement, it may submit a capability statement or proposal which shall be considered by the agency. The statement of capabilities and any other information furnished must be in writing and must contain material in sufficient detail to allow the NCI to determine if the party can perform the requirement. Responses must be received in the contracting office by 3:00PM Eastern Time, on June 7, 2024. All responses and questions must be in writing and sent via electronic mail to Michelle Nguyen at michelle.nguyen2@nih.gov and Mary Muir at mary.muir@nih.gov. A determination by the Government not to complete this proposed requirement based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. No collect calls will be accepted. In order to receive an award, contractors must be registered and have a valid, current Entity Record, including current Representations and Certifications in the System for Award Management (SAM) through SAM.gov. Reference Solicitation Number 75N91024R00003 on all correspondence.