Monitoring the adoption and effectiveness of Evidence Based Medicine practices throughout the EMS community

This is a Pre-Solicitation notice (synopsis) for a procurement in accordance with FAR Part 5.203 to provide notice of the Government's proposed contract action listed herein. In 2001, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) sponsored the creation of the National EMS Research Agenda; this document, among other important topics, advised the EMS community to apply evidence from scientific research to improve pre-hospital patient care. In 2006, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) furthered this recommendation by also advocating for evidence based guidelines (EBGs) in its report on the Future of Emergency Care in the United States. These documents led to recent efforts to create nationally accepted evidence-based guideline model process that will allow Emergency Medical Service (EMS) Systems to provide scientifically validated and more effective, pre-hospital care to the American public. NHTSA and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) recently sponsored the development of a number of EBGs focusing on topics such as pain management, trauma care, air medical transportation of trauma patients, pediatric seizure management, and pediatric respiratory distress. In addition to sponsoring the creation of EBGs, NHTSA is exploring the implementation of EBGs at the State level through a cooperative agreement awarded to the National Association of State EMS Officials (NASEMSO) in 2012. As more EBGs are created and are adopted by States and EMS systems, it is critical that a method for tracking their implementation and effectiveness is conceived. The first step in tracking the implementation and effectiveness of EBGs is to assess the utility of currently available medical data from EMS information systems, States, and the Federal Government. Most States are now participating in the National EMS Information System, commonly known as NEMSIS, which provides the framework for collecting, storing and sharing standardized EMS patient care data. Participating States collect and transmit a subset of their data to the National EMS Database, where it is available for EMS stakeholders, researchers and public use. The existence of these sources of data provides a potential mechanism to track, assess, and understand the impact of pre-hospital EBGs on patient treatment from motor vehicle crashes and other health emergencies. Unfortunately, it is unclear whether the appropriate data exist or are in the appropriate format for scientific assessment of the implementation and effectiveness of new EBGs. NHTSA's objective is to receive professional services to: 1) create performance measures to assess the implementation and effectiveness of the EBGs over time; 2) determine whether the appropriate data exist in national and State databases to monitor and assess EBG implementation; 3) provide suggestions to State and national database managers that will assist them in modifying databases to improve EBG tracking; 4) Create performance measures for EMS agencies/systems to evaluate their implementation of EBG's; and 5) if appropriate data exists, to track the implementation and effectiveness of EBGs, and analyze the currently available data to show the beginning stages of EBG implementation. Solicitation Information: The Government contemplates the award of a single Cost Plus Fixed Fee (CPFF) contract. The period of performance of the contract will not to exceed twenty-four (24) months. The forthcoming solicitation and any related documents to this procurement will only be available electronically for download at https://www.fedbizopps.gov referenced by the solicitation number (DTNH2216R00034). The anticipated issuance date of the forthcoming solicitation is on or about May 3, 2015. However, it is the Offeror's sole responsibility to monitor the Internet site for the release of the solicitation and amendments (if any). Potential Offerors will also be solely responsible for downloading their own copy of the solicitation and amendments (if any), as well as other related documents.