Inactive Buy Indian Set-Aside (specific to Department of Health and Human Services, Indian Health Services)

AMENDMENT TO THE RFI: The purpose of this RFI Amendment 0002 is as follows: 1) To correct the Product Service Code (PSC) as 6525 - IMAGING EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES: MEDICAL, DENTAL, VETERINARY and; 2) T... AMENDMENT TO THE RFI: The purpose of this RFI Amendment 0002 is as follows: 1) To correct the Product Service Code (PSC) as 6525 - IMAGING EQUIPMENT AND SUPPLIES: MEDICAL, DENTAL, VETERINARY and; 2) To re-open and allow responders an additional opportunity to provide optional feedback, questions and/or technical information in your Technical Capability Statement. Please refer to the Response Information and Instructions to Industry Sections; and 3) To extend the RFI/Sources Sought response date by 7 additional days (1 week) from Wednesday, June 17, 500 PM (ET). All questions for optional feedback shall be submitted to the Contract Specialist no later than 2:00 PM (Eastern Time) on Friday, June 19, 2020. This Amendment changes the due date for all responses to this RFI/Source Sought Notice. Responses must be submitted via email, no later than 5:00pm EST on Wednesday, June 24, 2020. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The purpose of this RFI Amendment 0001 is to revise the Response Information and Instructions to Industry to allow all responders an opportunity to provide optional feedback, questions and/or technical information in your Technical Capability Statement. Please refer to the Response Information and Instructions to Industry Sections below to view the revisions. All questions for optional feedback shall be submitted to the Contract Specialist no later than 2:00 PM (Eastern Time) on Friday, June 12, 2020. This Amendment does not change the due date for all responses to this RFI/Source Sought Notice. Responses must be submitted via email, no later than 5:00pm EST on Wednesday, June 17, 2020 INTRODUCTION This is a Sources Sought Notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of qualified Small Indian-Owned Firms that can participate in the upcoming requirement under the authority of The Buy Indian Act (25 USC 47). Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition strategy. BACKGROUND The IHS Tele-Retina Program (IHS-TR) uses the Joslin Vision Network (JVN) system, which is a specialized teleophthalmology modality for the remote diagnosis and management of diabetic retinopathy (DR). JVN is a proprietary telemedicine system developed by the Joslin Diabetes Center (JDC) in Boston. The JDC is a Not for Profit organization, and an affiliate of the Harvard Medical School. The JVN operates within the Comprehensive Diabetes Management Program (CDMP), a suite of software applications residing on the IHS JVN/CDMP server that provides multiple functions critical to the clinical operation of the JVN including patient clinical record management, database maintenance, clinical and administrative reporting, quality assurance (QA), RPMS/EHR interoperability, and DICOM image management. As such, the CDMP serves as the platform for clinical operation of the JVN in the Indian Health Service (IHS) and also is being used in a similar fashion by other IHS telemedicine modalities for remote health monitoring. Both the JVN and CDMP were developed as a collaboration of the JDC, DoD, VHA, and the IHS in the late 1990’s, and continuously updated since then with multiple version level upgrades of the software and hardware. The software is owned by JDC, but federal funding of its development established the basis for royalty/license free use in perpetuity by federal and federally affiliated users. Deployment and use of the JVN system in the IHS allows participating facilities to image the fundi of patients with diabetes for the purpose of remote diagnosis and management of diabetic retinopathy (DR) to allow timely diagnosis and treatment, thereby reducing avoidable vision loss among AI/ANs. This is a critically important program from both a clinical and regulatory vantage: 1. DR is the leading cause of blindness among working age adults but serious vision loss can very nearly be eliminated by timely diagnosis and treatment of high risk disease. Before the IHS-TR was implemented the sustained annual DR examination rate in Indian country was ~50%. In FY 2018 the IHS-TR program captured 29,065 studies of AI/AN patients that would have been at risk for progressing to blindness due to undetected high risk DR. 2. The Government Performance and Reporting Act requires the IHS to perform against a variety of clinical quality measures, one of which is the DR annual examination rate. The minimum performance requirement under IHS-GPRA for DR examinations in GY19 was 49.7% and will go up to 53.5% in GY20. The first clinical deployments of the IHS-TR began in 2000 and have continued incrementally over the subsequent 20 years with implementations currently at 123 sites in 25 states in Indian country as the IHS-JVN Teleophthalmology Program (IHS-JVN). With 14 portable deployments of the IHS-TR that provides services with additional outreach to small or remote locations. The IHS-TR uses the JVN technology to acquire, transmit, store/retrieve, interpret, and report retinal images from AI/AN’s with diabetes. These images are maintained on servers that operate on the IHS wide area network (WAN), and are routinely visible only by IHS reader staff to insure the privacy of AI/ANs. Evaluation of these images by IHS readers at the IHS-TR National Reading Center using the reading and reporting software (currently JVN) allows the remote diagnosis of level of DR and diabetic macular edema (DME) with development of a treatment plan consistent with established standards of care. As a contingency of its use in the IHS, the system has been validated and operated at the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) Category 3. Since this provides a DR diagnostic accuracy equal or better than a conventional dilated retinal examination, examinations by this program qualify for IHS GPRA tallies for annual DR examinations. More importantly, this allows patients to be managed remotely until they progress to high risk DR, thereby minimizing inconvenience and expense for the patient and increasing efficiencies for the hosting site. The imaging and reading service is generally reimbursable by Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance companies. A MOU/MOA between the program and the deployed sites defines the relationship and responsibilities of the respective parties. The IHS-TR retains ownership and control of all deployed equipment and is responsible for operational support, maintenance, repairs, and replacement as needed. The IHS-TR also provides onsite deployment services, training, support, reporting, and QA for all its telemedicine operations. The local site hosting the deployment must appropriately use and protect the equipment, and adhere to all required HHS/IHS property management requirements. As proscribed in the MOU/MOA between the IHS-TR and the deployment facility, failure to strictly adhere to all aspects of the MOU/MOA results in return of the equipment to the IHS-TR program, whereupon it may be redeployed to another site. The IHS-TR Teleophthalmology Program operates through recurring funding stemming from appropriations containing directed spending language for tele-retinal surveillance of DR among AI/AN. The original congressional direction also included the use of the JVN technology in collaboration with the JDC. As a result, this mature and widely distributed telemedicine program utilizes the proprietary JVN technology exclusively. This contract continues that legacy pattern for operational, fiscal, and regulatory reasons, and to maximize quality and minimize cost to the US government/IHS. The contractor provides all hardware, software, accessories, and other components necessary for the efficient deployment and effective operation of the IHS-TR technology. In the case of computer workstations and related equipment that support imaging or reading activities the vendor specifies all critical hardware, firmware, and software and certifies them for clinical use. The vendor also supplies operational support, maintenance, and IHS specified development of the IHS-TR software and hardware in collaboration with the IHS. This includes development and maintenance of all supporting software (currently CDMP), and all RPMS/EHR integration/interoperability. Imager modifications, repairs, and preventative maintenance of all validated imaging technology is also provided by the vendor. IHS-TR related software development limited to RPMS/EHR and other IHS specific applications and devices, such as interfaces, is generally available only within the federal sector, and therefore is supplied by IHS OIT or OIT contractors. RESPONSE INFORMATION IHS is seeking contract sources who have demonstrated experience in relevant scope in terms of its size, complexity and magnitude to the activities to be performed under this scope, particularly, as it pertains to maintaining ongoing development, implementation, and support of the IHS-TR activities in Indian country with software, services and equipment in a decentralized healthcare environment. The capability statement shall sufficiently address how the responder’s support services will be delivered for the proposed project. The qualifying response for this notice must ensure that the offeror has the experience and capacity to take part in this specific type of requirement. In particular, the responders SHALL provide a Technical Capability, addressing each of the following information in addition to the questions within Attachment 2 - Market Research Questionnaire attached to this Notice. • Contractor’s capability to provide ongoing development, implementation, and support of the IHS-TR activities in Indian country with software, services and equipment. The submission must describe the contractor’s risk management methodology to be employed to assess risks for a large, decentralized organization and develop risk response and mitigation plans at an entity/enterprise level of performance to promote improved outcomes; • Contractor’s experience and knowledge and any past performance information that is relevant to this requirement; and • Contractor and contractor staff qualifications/certifications. Optional Capabilities Statement: 1. Please provide three (3) references for any similar requirements your organization has worked - include agency/customer, project name, contract number, period of performance and a brief description. 2. In terms of evaluation approaches, beyond the required evaluation factors e.g. Past Performance, Technical and Price/Cost, what specific aspects within the Technical Factor do you recommend the Government evaluate that are “discriminators” to help distinguish differences in a Contractor’s approach? Optional Feedback: Please provide any feedback or questions you may have related to this requirement and the draft SOW. INSTRUCTIONS TO INDUSTRY All capable parties are encouraged to respond. Responses must directly demonstrate the company’s capability, experience, and ability to marshal resources to effectively and efficiently perform the objectives described above. Generic capability statements are not sufficient and will not be considered compliant with the requirements of this notice. The Government requests interested parties submit a written response to this notice which includes: a. Company point of contact, mailing address, and telephone number(s), and website address b. Applicable company GSA Schedule number or other available procurement vehicle. c. Company’s System for Award Management (SAM) registration status. Only one (1), single document can be uploaded. Please be sure to combine all documents or convert to PDF prior to uploading and submitting via email. Please do not provide general capabilities statements. Only provide relevant information related to this requirement. This is optional All Optional feedback and questions must be submitted legibly on an Excel, Word, or PDF document to the furnished email addresses. Disclaimer and Important Notes. This notice shall not obligate the Government to award contract. Any information provided by industry to the Government as a result of this sources sought synopsis is strictly voluntary. Responses will not be returned. No entitlements to payment of direct or indirect costs or charges to the Government will arise as a result of contractor submission of responses, or the Government's use of such information or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published on a government GPE. Furthermore, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. Attachments: Attachment 1 - Draft SOW Attachment 2 - Market Research Questionnaire Confidentiality. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s). Responses must be submitted via email, no later than 5:00pm EST on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. Capability statements will not be returned and will not be accepted after the due date. The maximum number of pages for this submission is ten (10) pages. Interested parties shall submit their response to this notice to the both individuals listed below in order to be considered compliant. Primary POC: Glenda Smith Contract Specialist Email: Glenda.Smith@ihs.gov Secondary POC: Paul Premoe Contracting Officer Email: Paul.Premoe@ihs.gov