Electronic Surveillance System (ESSENCE)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contemplates entering into a negotiated sole source follow on, Cost Plus Fixed Fee type contract with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL), of Laure, MD. The base period of performance will be 12 months and (1) option of 12 months. The total base and option will not exceed 24 months. This procurement will be awarded under the authority of FAR 6.302-1. Only one responsible source and no other sources will satisfy the Agency's requirements because the software is proprietary. JHU is the sole developer of the ESSENCE software and are the only ones who can provide operational maintenance, support, and enhancements to the system per their license agreement. Under this order JHU/APL will continue to provide operations and maintenance support for the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE) in support of the National Syndromic Surveillance Program (NSSP). The NSSP promotes and advances development of a syndromic surveillance system for the timely exchange of syndromic data. The NSSP includes two components: 1) a Community of Practice in which participants collaborate to advance the science and practice of syndromic surveillance; and 2) the cloud-based Bio Sense Platform, a secure integrated electronic health information system with standardized analytic tools and processes. These tools enable users to rapidly collect, evaluate, share, and store syndromic surveillance data. By using the Bio Sense Platform, health officials can analyze syndromic data to improve their common awareness of health threats over time and across regional boundaries. The Bio Sense Platform provides health departments a common electronic platform for collecting, storing, and sharing syndromic surveillance data. ESSENCE is a web-based syndromic surveillance system designed for the early detection of disease outbreaks, suspicious patterns of illness, and public health emergencies. ESSENCE collects, processes, and analyzes non-traditional data sources (i.e. chief complaints from hospital emergency departments, poison control center calls, over-the-counter pharmaceutical sales, etc.) to identify anomalous disease activity in a community. The data can be queried, analyzed, and visualized both temporally and spatially by the end user. CDC has identified a need to procure ongoing contractor maintenance support of ESSENCE that will be available on the Bio Sense Platform. The purpose of this project is to provide enhancements, operations and maintenance support, update training courses and update end-user documentation tools for ESSENCE to ensure that jurisdictions can use ESSENCE effectively. Scope of Work Independent and not as an agent of the Government, the Contractor shall provide operational and maintenance support to CDC, updated online training, updated end-user documentation, and the Contractor must be capable of developing and delivering the following enhancements to ESSENCE: 1. Develop and deploy a restful interface 2. Create and optimize a national Word dictionary and explore word embeddings 3. Develop and deploy a system Diagnostic Dashboard 4. Develop and deploy an ability for site admins to create and share customizable regions 5. Standardize and clean up the naming conventions across the site 6. Add picker lists 7. Update processes needed to clean and properly process fields 8. Update Chief Complaint Processor 9. Develop and deploy Query log analytic enhancements To the best of the Government knowledge JHU/APL is the sole developer of the ESSENCE software and is the only one who can provide operational maintenance, support, and enhancements to the ESSENCE system per their license agreement. However, any responsible source who wishes to be considered may submit a capability statement addressing the requirements of the solicitation for our review prior to issuing solicitation. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotations; however, all quotations/responses received within closing date of the issuance of this notice will be considered by the government. A determination by the government not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Any quotation/response should be emailed to contract specialist at tnr6@cdc.gov by 11:30am EST 25 May 2018.