Technical Support for Cancer Surveillance

This is a Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small businesses; HUBZone small businesses; service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran-owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. The NAICS code for this acquisition is 813920 - All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technological Services, which has a size standard of $14,000,000. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice. Background: The Surveillance Research Program (SRP) directs the collection and analysis of pertinent data in order to answer key questions about cancer incidence, morbidity, mortality, and cancer-related health status in diverse regions and populations in the United States. As part of its mission, SRP manages the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program (http://seer.cancer.gov/) an integrated, comprehensive, multiple population-based reporting system. SRP also provides leadership in the interpretation of cancer statistics and in developing statistical methodologies appropriate for analyzing trends and evaluating the impact of cancer control interventions as well as geographic, social, behavioral, genetic, and health care delivery factors on the cancer burden. The objective of this seven-year contract is to support training/educational workshops and working groups to disseminate technical assistance and improve effectiveness of registry operations, trans-agency investigations of data comparability and quality, publication of pooled data based on statistical analyses and quality control field studies, and development of quantitative methods and metrics that assess data quality and benchmarks for pooling. The resulting standard processes and procedures developed under this contract will enhance the national capacity for cancer surveillance. Surveillance activities include, but are not limited to the collection, measurement, and analysis of comparable data from multiple population-based cancer registries, their reporting sources, related health information systems, and data on socio-demographic population characteristics. Activities supported through this contract initiative will (1) stimulate further development of more standard and efficient approaches to population-based central registry operations; (2) advance and codify best practices for consolidating data for each cancer case as well as other basic registry operations; (3) provide new resources for conducting distributed technical training and dissemination of other techniques and tools relevant to registry operations; (4) improve the efficiency of collecting, communicating and coordinating accurate cancer data on patients seen in multiple facilities; (5) support development of more refined criteria to measure completeness, content and quality of population-based cancer registry data defined by empirical evidence and statistical analyses/models; (6) promote investigations and studies designed to improve cancer registry data, particularly information on socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics as well as clinical information; and (7) provide new resources to continue implementation, developmental, assessment and availability of public use and research data files composed of information from multiple population-based cancer registry surveillance systems. Purpose and Objectives: The objective of this contract is to enhance national cancer surveillance efforts in three specific areas: 1. Strengthen the national capacity for collecting, analyzing, and using comparable cancer registry data for cancer surveillance and research. 2. Develop and improve methods for assessing the quality and comparability of cancer registry data. This includes, but is not limited to timeliness, completeness, and accuracy. 3. Improve the efficiency and quality of registry operations through promoting established standards, disseminating technical information, and facilitating collaboration among Federal, state, provincial and local registry professionals. Project Requirements: A copy of the draft Statement of Work (SOW) pertaining to this requirement, which is subject to revisions, is attached to this notice. Anticipated Period of Performance: The period of performance for this ID/IQ contract would be 7 years. The anticipated start date is July 1, 2014. A single award is anticipated. Capability Statement/Information Sought: Respondents must be qualified and prepare a capability statement for all Task Areas in the Statement of Work. The Capability Statement will be evaluated based on information provided in relation to the project requirements, current capability and capacity to: 1. Perform work in the attached Draft Statement of Work 2. Staff education, training, experience, expertise and knowledge 3. Corporate experience and management capabilities 4. Prior completed project and Government contracts of a similar nature Instructions for Submission of Capability Statements: 1. Information Submission Instructions: Interested qualified small business organizations should submit a capability statement, not to exceed 20 total single-spaced pages, double sided (2 sides = 2 pages) using a 12 point font size at a minimum, that clearly details the firms' ability to perform and that addresses the specific requirements described above and the draft Statement of Work (SOW). Please provide your DUNS number, organization name, address, point of contact, including names, titles, addresses, telephone, fax numbers, email addresses, and size and type of business (e.g., 8(a), HUBZone, etc.) pursuant to the applicable NAICS code. 2. Number of Copies/Delivery Point: All capability statements sent in response to this Small Business Sources Sought notice must be submitted electronically (via email) to William Neal, Contract Specialist at william.neal@nih.gov either in MS Word, or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). The email subject line must specify HHS-NIH-NCI-SBSS-PCPSB-35000-41. Facsimile and telephone responses will not be accepted. 3. Common Cut-off Date: Electronically submitted tailored capability statements are due no later than Tuesday, February 7, 2014, CAPABILITY STATEMENT RECEIVED AFTER THAT DATE AND TIME WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED. DISCLAIMER AND IMPORTANT NOTES: This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract 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 in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. CONFIDENTIALITY: No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your responses. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).