Inactive

DISCLAIMER This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this RFI that is marked as proprietary w... DISCLAIMER This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. All information received in response to this RFI that is marked as proprietary will be handled accordingly. In accordance with FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this RFI. MARKET RESEARCH ANNOUCEMENT THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT ANNOUNCEMENT ONLY Climate Change Impact Study No Solicitation is currently available. Disclaimer and Important Notes: This posting is a Sources Sought to gauge interest from potential vendors and is issued solely for informational and planning purposes. This posting is not a Request for Quotations, and it is not considered to be a commitment by the Government to award a contract nor is the Government responsible for any costs incurred in furnishing information provided under this Sources Sought. No basis for claim against the Government shall arise as a result from a response to this Sources Sought or Government use of any information provided. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information shall be included in your response to this Sources Sought. All information contained in this Sources Sought Announcement is preliminary, as well as subject to modification, and is in no way binding on the Government. The Government will not pay for any information submitted in response to this request. The information requested will be used solely within the Department of Veterans Affairs to facilitate decision making and will not be disclosed outside of the Government. The determination of a procurement strategy, based upon the comments submitted in response to this Sources Sought Announcement, is solely within the discretion of the Government. The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code is 541620 Environmental Consulting Services, and the small business size standard is $19.0 Million. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Network Contracting Office (NCO 21) is soliciting information from contractors that can furnish a survey Using Innovative Data Tools to Understand, Predict, and Prepare for the Impacts of Climate Change on Veteran Health. Description of Work Required: Climate change increasingly affects every aspect of human life. Ongoing studies continue to report a close correlation between climate change and human health. It is estimated that global death rates will increase by 73 per 100,000 people by 2100 due to changes in temperature alone. Recent findings suggest that the health impacts of climate change are primarily related to underlying risk factors, such as chronic disease, lifestyle choices, and environmental exposure to other health stressors. Based on limited data, initial prediction scenarios suggest that many prevalent climate change impacts correlate with an increase in negative health outcomes. Beyond the direct effects on human health, it is also now established that as climate change affects the physical environment, the distribution and prevalence of certain infectious diseases will increase, resulting in increasing healthcare demand. The subject is increasingly attracting the attention of health professionals and climate change scientists, particularly with respect to Lyme disease and other vector-borne human diseases. Latitudinal, altitudinal, seasonal, and interannual associations between climate change and disease, along with historical and experimental evidence, suggest that climate change can affect disease outbreaks and overall human health in nonlinear ways. The increasing negative effects from climate change could have extraordinary implications for the VA in terms of Veteran health, care delivery, health equity, emergency preparedness and response, and overall VA facility and health care costs. Recent trends in U.S. climate data demonstrate that extreme temperature events (both hot and cold) are becoming more frequent. Environmental factors have the potential to significantly impact healthcare delivery: a 2023 study found that large portions of the U.S. could experience electric grid strains coinciding with periods of extreme heat, leading to large surges in emergency department visits with the potential to overwhelm hospitals resources. Extreme temperatures will likely worsen chronic health conditions, such as heart disease, respiratory disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease, and septicemia. This could especially harm the many Veterans that are predisposed to poor health outcomes to due to additional underlying risk factors such as chronic medical conditions, poverty, and homelessness. To fully understand the implications of these changes, more data integration and analysis is needed to correlate climate change and health effects and to project future climate impacts on VHA healthcare delivery. Executive Order 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, established a comprehensive government approach to the climate crisis, requiring each government agency to develop a Climate Action Plan (CAP). The 2021 VA CAP outlined five specific climate vulnerabilities, with two directly addressing the public health impacts of climate change, related to a) the increased demand for emergency care and supplies during dangerous natural disasters related to climate change, and b) the adverse human health impacts to Veterans (and VA employees) of climate-related environmental changes, such as heat waves, floods, droughts and other extreme events, leading to direct health effects as well as food-, water- and vector-borne diseases, changes in the quality and safety of air, food, water and stresses to mental health. Fortunately, new tools and resources are now available to provide innovative insights into these issues that will allow for better strategic approaches and strategy development. Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have accelerated the adoption of algorithmically-enhanced data platforms and services and present an opportunity to gain high-fidelity insights into community-specific risk factors, including social and demographic data at varying geographic scales (national, state, region, neighborhood, and individual), such as wealth, education, physical environment, infrastructure, food, connection, safety, health care access, housing, and various other lifestyle and preference data for most adults across the U.S. These datasets include risk indicators for various disease states and conditions (such as homelessness), and sophisticated predictive algorithms that can be deployed across the data sets to model risk. New, high-resolution climate models are also available to allow for predictive capabilities at the community and individual levels that can be integrated with Veteran demographic data, creating a first-of-its-kind 360-degree assessment of climate impacts on Veteran populations. When combined with existing Veterans Health Administration (VHA) veteran health data sources, these new analytical approaches could provide the most high-resolution insights ever achieved to understand the complex relationships between climate change and Veteran health. These insights can then be used to inform better healthcare delivery, pandemic preparedness, and allocation of healthcare resources as well as project non-linear growth in VA healthcare costs. These analytics could also shape alerting programs that could notify VHA public health experts before or during impending or developing public health concerns. A draft Performance Work Statement (PWS) is attached to this notice. Period of Performance: Date of award through one (1) year Place of Performance: The primary location will be the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, but remote work by vendor is encouraged. Submission of Information: All interested parties are encouraged to submit a response demonstrating the vendor s capability, qualifications, and expertise to satisfy the requirements. Specifically, any interested parties are requested to provide the following information by email to ladonna.collins@va.gov no later than 1:00 p.m. MST on April 03, 2024. Please answer the following questions when responding: What is your company s Socioeconomic Status? (ex: small business, large business, SDVOSB, etc.) a. If SDVOSB or VOSB, are you registered with the Small Business Administration? Veteran Small Business Certification (sba.gov) Provide Company s legal name along with Unique Entity ID (SAM) number. Primary point of contact, including phone number and e-mail address. Capabilities Statement. Describe experience in providing survey s using innovative data tools to understand, predict, and prepare for the impacts of climate change on Veteran Health as outlined in the PWS. List other Projects (Government and Commercial) that are similar in scope and size. As this is a service acquisition, the Small Business Administration and the Federal Acquisition Regulation have a Limitations on Subcontracting requirement. For all small businesses, to include SDVOSB and VOSB, At least 50 percent of the cost of contract performance incurred for personnel shall be expended for employees of the concern. See FAR 52.219-14 and FAR 52.219-27 available in full text at https://www.acquisition.gov/far/html/52_217_221.html 7a. Of the service actions listed above, which one(s) will your company perform as the prime contractor using its own personnel without subcontracting? 7b. With respect to the service actions listed above, which action(s) do you intend on subcontracting or using other than your company s own personnel? 7c. Of those services that will be performed, approximately what percentage will be paid to the subcontractor(s)? 8. GSA Contract Number, if applicable. RFQ number 36C26124Q0438 has been assigned and should be referenced on all correspondence regarding this announcement. The Government will use this information when determining its business type decision. This synopsis is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government and no contract will be awarded as a direct result of this Sources Sought announcement. Notes: Contractors must have a current registration in the System for Award Management (SAM) at https://sam.gov/SAM/ SDVOSB and VOSB firms should be registered at the time of quote submission and CVE verified at Veteran Small Business Certification (sba.gov) CLIN Description Quantity Unit Unit Price Total Price 0001 Climate Change Impact Survey Study Projected Period of Performance: Date of award to one (1) year 2080 MO $ $ Total Price $ Performance Work Statement Public Health National Program Office Patient Care Services Department of Veterans Affairs Using Innovative Data Tools to Understand, Predict, and Prepare for the Impacts of Climate Change on Veteran Health Section 1: General Information 1.1 General: The Public Health National Program Office (PHNPO) requires a multi-component solution to identify and create actionable interventions around climate-related health risks to U.S. Veterans. This will include a solution that provides comprehensive climate data, modeling, and forecasting of climate impacts that have been demonstrated to impact health conditions affecting Veterans, and seamlessly integrates this data, including capabilities to synthesize, analyze, and visualize, with Veteran medical record health data in PHNPO s existing public health surveillance platform, Praedico. This solution will further PHNPO s work toward achieving the goals outlined in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Climate Action Plan (CAP). 1.2 Background: 1.2.1 Climate change increasingly affects every aspect of human life. Ongoing studies continue to report a close correlation between climate change and human health. It is estimated that global death rates will increase by 73 per 100,000 people by 2100 due to changes in temperature alone. Recent findings suggest that the health impacts of climate change are primarily related to underlying risk factors, such as chronic disease, lifestyle choices, and environmental exposure to other health stressors. Based on limited data, initial prediction scenarios suggest that many prevalent climate change impacts correlate with an increase in negative health outcomes. Beyond the direct effects on human health, it is also now established that as climate change affects the physical environment, the distribution and prevalence of certain infectious diseases will increase, resulting in increasing healthcare demand. The subject is increasingly attracting the attention of health professionals and climate change scientists, particularly with respect to Lyme disease and other vector-borne human diseases. Latitudinal, altitudinal, seasonal, and interannual associations between climate change and disease, along with historical and experimental evidence, suggest that climate change can affect disease outbreaks and overall human health in nonlinear ways. The increasing negative effects from climate change could have extraordinary implications for the VA in terms of Veteran health, care delivery, health equity, emergency preparedness and response, and overall VA facility and health care costs. Recent trends in U.S. climate data demonstrate that extreme temperature events (both hot and cold) are becoming more frequent. Environmental factors have the potential to significantly impact healthcare delivery: a 2023 study found that large portions of the U.S. could experience electric grid strains coinciding with periods of extreme heat, leading to large surges in emergency department visits with the potential to overwhelm hospitals resources. Extreme temperatures will likely worsen chronic health conditions, such as heart disease, respiratory disease, diabetes, influenza and pneumonia, kidney disease, and septicemia. This could especially harm the many Veterans that are predisposed to poor health outcomes to due to additional underlying risk factors such as chronic medical conditions, poverty, and homelessness. To fully understand the implications of these changes, more data integration and analysis is needed to correlate climate change and health effects and to project future climate impacts on VHA healthcare delivery. Executive Order 14008, Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, established a comprehensive government approach to the climate crisis, requiring each government agency to develop a Climate Action Plan (CAP). The 2021 VA CAP outlined five specific climate vulnerabilities, with two directly addressing the public health impacts of climate change, related to a) the increased demand for emergency care and supplies during dangerous natural disasters related to climate change, and b) the adverse human health impacts to Veterans (and VA employees) of climate-related environmental changes, such as heat waves, floods, droughts and other extreme events, leading to direct health effects as well as food-, water- and vector-borne diseases, changes in the quality and safety of air, food, water and stresses to mental health. Fortunately, new tools and resources are now available to provide innovative insights into these issues that will allow for better strategic approaches and strategy development. Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have accelerated the adoption of algorithmically-enhanced data platforms and services and present an opportunity to gain high-fidelity insights into community-specific risk factors, including social and demographic data at varying geographic scales (national, state, region, neighborhood, and individual), such as wealth, education, physical environment, infrastructure, food, connection, safety, health care access, housing, and various other lifestyle and preference data for most adults across the U.S. These datasets include risk indicators for various disease states and conditions (such as homelessness), and sophisticated predictive algorithms that can be deployed across the data sets to model risk. New, high-resolution climate models are also available to allow for predictive capabilities at the community and individual levels that can be integrated with Veteran demographic data, creating a first-of-its-kind 360-degree assessment of climate impacts on Veteran populations. When combined with existing Veterans Health Administration (VHA) veteran health data sources, these new analytical approaches could provide the most high-resolution insights ever achieved to understand the complex relationships between climate change and Veteran health. These insights can then be used to inform better healthcare delivery, pandemic preparedness, and allocation of healthcare resources as well as project non-linear growth in VA healthcare costs. These analytics could also shape alerting programs that could notify VHA public health experts before or during impending or developing public health concerns. PURPOSE: 1.2.2 VHA PHNPO s intent is to leverage the resources described above to innovate an integrated public health surveillance platform and analytics tool combining Veteran medical record data, evidence-based climate data and forecasting, and Veteran demographic data, and conduct a pilot effort to evaluate climate and Veteran health forecast scenarios as follows: Employ the novel data and algorithmic platform, JUPITER, to build on the recent work, Analysis of Correlation between Climate Change and Human Health Based on a Machine Learning Approach to develop high-fidelity community-level climate and health risk profiles for three U.S. counties (at least one rural and one urban/large metropolitan city) using existing VA datasets. Jupiter Intelligence is the global market, science, and technology leader in physical climate analytics for resiliency planning, risk management, and disclosure. Jupiter s customers include five percent of the world s largest enterprises, many companies within the Global 2000, the U.S. Department of Defense, and public sector authorities in jurisdictions around the world. Its analytics have been adopted by at least one of the world s five largest entities in asset management, banking, chemicals, insurance, oil and gas, minerals and mining, electric utilities, and construction. Disclosed private sector customers include AstraZeneca, BP, Entergy, Hawaiian Electric, JLL, Liberty Mutual, MS&AD, Nephila and Zurich Insurance. In addition to the DoD, Jupiter s public-sector work includes FEMA, NASA, NOAA, New York City, the City of Miami, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Broward County (Florida), and national security agencies. Jupiter s partnerships include most of the world s largest accounting, consulting, engineering and insurance firms, and defense contractors, including Aon, Bain, Boston Consulting Group, Guide house (formerly Navigant), MS&AD, and Zurich Insurance. The Jupiter Promise program partners with NGOs to provide climate analytics to improve resilience for the world s most vulnerable, under-resourced populations. Jupiter s enterprise-grade, best-in-science solutions Climate Score Global, and the Climate Score Planning suite together form the world s only global-to-street resolution climate analytics offering. Their foundation, the Jupiter Climate Score Intelligence Platform, is based on rigorous global climate, weather, ocean, hydrological, and data science, and transparent methodologies. Use historical, longitudinal climate data and metrics derived from the integrated with Veteran medical record data to develop, implement, and evaluate a pilot to determine the empirical relationship between climate change and three highly impactful chronic health conditions (e.g., asthma/emphysema, heart disease, and kidney disease) that are prevalent among Veterans. The pilot will be constructed using the risk profiles developed in Phase 1 and will incorporate anonymized individual medical record-level Veteran health data from the VHA medical record database. Utilizing the empirical relationships developed in Phase 2, use high-resolution climate forecasts based on modeling of three future climate scenarios (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, and SSP5-8.5) to project climate impacts on the chronic health conditions evaluated in Phase 2. This approach can quantify physical climate risk anywhere in the world down to a 90-m resolution. It employs dozens of the scientific community s most respected climate models, coupled with machine learning, land use and elevation data, and models for hydrology, wildfire, severe weather, and more. The hazard output parameters include inland flooding, coastal flooding, heat, cold, wind, precipitation, drought, hail, and other severe weather, and wildfire. All climate hazards will incorporate similar components, which fall into two categories: those used to calculate future extreme hazards at a broad level, and those used to downscale those projections to the local level. Use the projections developed in Phase 3 to identify correlations between climate change and specific health conditions affecting Veterans to inform policies and interventions and model potential interventions that VHA could deploy to mitigate the risks identified, including outlining the additional resources that VHA will require to meet the needs of Veterans as demand for healthcare services grow with worsening environmental conditions. This four-pronged approach seeks to ensure the following: that VHA takes advantage of newly available climate and data technology resources to use longitudinal climate data below the zip code level to develop high-fidelity community risk profiles; that the pilots be conducted in >3 different locations (urban and rural) to ensure learning, cross-pollination, and evaluation of multiple potentially vulnerable Veteran populations; and that the test and evaluate approach facilitates an iterative transition to scale and ultimately impacts Veterans lives. VA s integration of an advanced analytics platform with existing VA and other supplemental data resources would allow for a real-time view of potential climate change-induced risk factors that may exacerbate or cause adverse health outcomes in Veterans. We plan to develop, integrate, and leverage an advanced analytics platform to inform development, implementation, evaluation, and scaling of a pilot program. To assess the most relevant and high-resolution climate intelligence, we will utilize advanced climate projections that can quantify the risk to populations due to changing environmental conditions across the entire U.S., including noncontiguous states and territories. For example, new ML and AI tools can determine how changes in the climate cause future flooding, extreme heat and cold, high winds, drought, and wildfires at 90-meter resolutions. The model products are determined by employing data from dozens of well-vetted climate models, coupled with land use and elevation data, and models for hydrology, wildfire, and severe weather to analyze trends in future climate scenarios. These outputs can quantify risk due to environmental perils in 5-year increments from 2020 through 2100, for three potential carbon emissions scenarios (SSP1-2.6, SSP2-4.5, and SSP5-8.5). Over the past few years, organizations have leveraged data-driven insights from advanced analytics to make more informed and effective decisions. As technology has advanced, AI and ML techniques have been used to gain a more comprehensive and nuanced view of community behavior, allowing organizations to predict future trends, tailor healthcare strategies, and measure the effectiveness of their engagement efforts while optimizing resource allocation. Similarly, by pursuing the example activities and developing the outputs described above, the VHA PHNPO can not only better serve Veterans most vulnerable to the impacts of increasingly severe chronic health conditions in the near-term but can also realize the long-term benefits of yet-untapped AI and ML advances that can enhance understanding of community risks, develop predictive risk modeling, create tailored interventions, and measure engagement impacts. This will also help the PHNPO contribute to the broader community s understanding of how climate change changes environmental conditions and affects health risk factors for all Americans. 1.2.3 The Climate Action Plan also specifies that, in addition to preparing and deploying enhanced bio surveillance systems and epidemiologic investigations to better understand and address climate-related impacts, another key action required to prepare for the impact of climate change on Veteran health is readiness of critical supply and pharmaceutical stockpiles. The All-Hazards Emergency Cache (AHEC) comprised of Emergency Pharmacy Services (EPS), Office of Emergency Management (OEM), and PHNPO (Lead), provides short-term coverage for the initial 48-72 hours of a large-scale emergency and complements the contents of the U.S. Strategic National Stockpile managed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Enterprise. Increases in temperatures and precipitation extremes are projected to result in extreme weather events, and climate change is also likely to change the epidemiology of certain infectious diseases. Resulting natural disasters, large-scale emergencies, and pandemics will stress local supplies on hand and potentially interrupt supply chain activities. VA relies on these stockpiles to respond to the impact of surges in the demand for supplies and to mitigate impacts of high consequence infections. VA is also prepared to participate in regional disaster planning and response, as part of VA s Fourth Mission activities under the Stafford Act (42 U.S.C. Ch. 68). PHNPO must be prepared to adapt and update AHEC, as needed, to respond to the effects of climate change on disease transmission, and to understand the potential impacts of climate change on the AHEC program itself. 1.3 Period of Performance: Date of award to one (1) year. 1.4 Place of Performance: TBD 1.5 Hours of Operation: TBD 1.6 Type of Contract: TBD 1.7 Invoicing: All invoices from the contractor shall be submitted electronically in accordance with VAAR Clause 852.232-72 Electronic Submission of Payment Requests. VA s Electronic Invoice Presentment and Payment System The FSC uses a third-party contractor, Tungsten, to transition vendors from paper to electronic invoice submission. Please go to this website: http://www.tungsten-network.com/US/en/veterans-affairs/ to begin submitting electronic invoices, free of charge. More information on the VA Financial Services Center is available at http://www.fsc.va.gov/einvoice.asp. Vendor e-Invoice Set-Up Information: Please contact Tungsten at the phone number or email address listed below to begin submitting your electronic invoices to the VA Financial Services Center for payment processing, free of charge. If you have question about the e-invoicing program or Tungsten, please contact the FSC at the phone number or email address listed below: Tungsten e-Invoice Setup Information: 1-877-489-6135 Tungsten e-Invoice email: VA.Registration@Tungsten-Network.com FSC e-Invoice Contact Information: 1-877-353-9791 FSC e-invoice email: vafsccshd@va.gov Section 2: Definitions & Acronyms 2.1 Definitions: Contractor. A supplier or vendor awarded a contract to provide specific supplies or service to the government. The term used in this contract refers to the prime. Subcontractor. One that enters a contract with a prime contractor. The Government does not have privity of contract with the subcontractor. Workday. The number of hours per day the Contractor provides services in accordance with the contract. Work Week. Monday through Friday, unless specified otherwise. 2.2 Acronyms: AHEC All Hazards Emergency Cache CAP Climate Action Plan CDC Centers for Disease Control and Prevention EPS Emergency Pharmacy Services HHS U.S. Department of Health and Human Services HIPAA Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act FISMA Federal Information Security Management Act NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology OEM Office of Emergency Management OIG Office of the Inspector General OMB Office of Management and Budget PHNPO Public Health National Program Office SLEP shelf-life expiration program VA U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs VAAR Veterans Affairs Acquisition Regulations VHA Veterans Health Administration Section 3: Government Furnished Property, Equipment, and Services 3.1 The contractor will be working with VA staff in the performance of the Climate related Public Health activities. The VA staff working on this project includes: A) Three Physicians B) Three Epidemiologists C) Eight Laboratory Personnel D) Four Program Support Specialists 3.2 GFE Contract Staff Computers VA will provide GFE laptops for each contract staff member participating in this project. Section 4: Contractor Furnished Items and Services 4.1 PHNPO conducts disease surveillance and public health response activities within VHA focusing on public health. Public health surveillance includes activities such as detection and tracking progression of disease outbreaks, monitoring disease trends across VA, early warning of bioterrorist, climate-related, and other health-related events, and specialized laboratory testing. Composition of vendor team: Must be sufficiently representative of parties involved to ensure expert advice is available or able to be sought and efficient communication is achieved. Should be of a size that facilitates effective and appropriate action. Section 5: Tasks to be Performed The outputs detailed below would support the development and execution of the key activities described above. The Public Health National Program Office (PHNPO) requires a multi-component solution to identify and create actionable interventions to reduce climate-related health risks to U.S. Veterans. This will include a solution that provides comprehensive climate data, climate modeling and forecasting; incorporates Veteran demographic data at the sub-zip code level which have been demonstrated to impact health conditions affecting Veterans and which have the potential to influence climate-related health risks; and seamlessly integrates this data, including capabilities to synthesize, analyze, and visualize, with Veteran medical record health data in PHNPO s existing public health surveillance platform, Praedico. This solution will continue to further PHNPO work toward achieving the goals outlined in VA Climate Action Plan. . Task 1 Provide and implement comprehensive data integration management strategy for novel integrated climate and public health surveillance platform and analytics tool, including developing program goals, objectives, deliverables, policies and procedures, timelines, and work plans, as needed, to meet division mission and goals in established time frame. Program planning should also include resource requirements, evaluation plans, and risk management plans. Establish, track, and report on work plan progress to ensure adherence to schedules and milestones. Develop a program evaluation plan that assesses solution acceptability, feasibility, and scalability. Gather information from evaluation assessments, analyze, synthesize, and disseminate insights to PHNPO staff, and/or vendor/subcontractor as appropriate, to help inform decision-making, project improvements, and next steps. Conduct meetings/listening sessions between staff in PHNPO divisions to understand customer needs and expectations and client responsibilities. Regularly engage with PHNPO staff to ensure updates/improvements are made to data integration strategy, as needed. After deployment and kickoff, meet with customers to facilitate necessary training, learn from engagement feedback, ...