Public and Professional Education Outreach for Organ Donation - CANCELLED 8/3/15

AMENDMENT 1 : This notice/posting is hereby CANCELLED in its entirety as of 8/3/2015. Thank you for your interest in HRSA. -KL The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) intends to issue a Request for Proposal (RFP) which will solicit proposals to establish the general scope of the requirements under this IDIQ contract. The contractor shall encourage organ, eye, and tissue donor registration and family discussion by developing and implementing a comprehensive marketing campaign. The contractor shall create and disseminate outreach materials that explain the donation and transplantation system and process and combat myths and misinformation perpetuated in society. Healthcare Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Healthcare Systems Bureau (HSB), Division of Transplantation (DoT) requires a contractor to perform marketing and advertising services. The work involves coordinated mass media and community level, interpersonal outreach tactics. The goals are to: 1) increase donor registrations, 2) enhance public awareness of the need for organs, 3) encourage family discussion about organ donation, and 4) improve public trust in the organ transplant system. DoT is the primary entity in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with major responsibility for the Organ Transplant Program which includes, in brief, the responsibility: 1) to provide oversight and guidance to the national organ transplant system in the U.S. including monitoring the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network and the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, and 2) to implement a program of public and professional education and outreach aimed at increasing the number of organ donors in this country. Many needless deaths occur each year because of a staggering imbalance between the supply and demand for donor organs. As of July, 2015, the national transplant waiting list was nearly 123,000. In 2014, the total number of deceased and living organ donors was only 14,412. While they enabled 29,532 wait-listed patients to receive a transplant, 6,111 others died waiting. With the aging of the population it is likely that more people may be referred for an organ transplant as a viable treatment option, the waiting list growth rate is likely to be even greater in the near future. Without successful interventions to increase donation, the disparity between need and supply is likely to be substantially exacerbated, resulting in even more unnecessary deaths. In 2004, Congress amended the Public Health Service Act with the overall intent of increasing organ donation and recovery. Provisions of the legislation strengthen the government's ability to provide outreach, education, and other services aimed at promoting and increasing organ donation. Contractual assistance will facilitate DoT's ability to continue, increase, and intensify those efforts in hopes of making lifesaving organs available to the ever-increasing number of patients waiting for them. DoT's strategy to increase organ donation registration and awareness includes both mass communication and interpersonal efforts based in part on a meta-analysis of public outreach efforts to increase organ donation which concluded that campaigns using both media and interpersonal tactics have greater impact than media-only campaigns. Furthermore, research indicates that Americans' attitudes and behaviors related to organ donation form a commitment continuum from those who strongly oppose, to those who simply haven't thought about donation, those who support but have not registered, those who have registered, and those who are advocates of donation. According to the 2012 National Survey of Organ Donation Attitudes and Behaviors, 94.9 percent of Americans support or strongly support organ donation, but only 62.1 percent have enrolled on a state registry, on their driver's license, or signed a donor card. Of those not yet registered, 59.2 percent said they were willing to do so. The goals listed above and supported by this contract are intended to move individuals along the continuum, for example, by encouraging registration among those who support donation but have not yet registered through targeted messaging and opportunities; addressing myths and misconceptions through educational efforts for those who support donation but have reservations; raising awareness through public education for those who are unaware of the need for organ donation; and encouraging advocacy for the cause by those who strongly support donation and have already registered. In 2014, the number of registered donors was approximately 120 million. Organdonor.gov and its associated social media outlets resulted in approximately 105,445 clicks to state donor registries while Phase III of the Workplace Partnership for Life (WPFL) Hospital Campaign recorded 105,868 donor designations (June 2013 - April 2014). A successful marketing campaign will result in increased referrals to state donor registries from organdonor.gov/donaciondeorganos.gov and associated social media outlets, and evaluation of appropriate proxy measures indicating positive movement toward the goals. For subpopulations unable to register due to their age (minors) or legal status (undocumented), the goal is to increase awareness and promote positive attitudes. Increased knowledge and awareness will also be the goal for certain outreach efforts which do not involve registry enrollment, for example living donation and vascularized composite allografts (VCA). Target audiences during the first year are expected to include adults over 50, teens, parents of children and youth, Spanish-speaking Hispanics as well as hospitals as gatekeepers to their local communities. Target audiences during the performance period are expected to include the general population-and specific audiences with low registration rates, such as African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, adults over 50 years old, youth, families, and/or people at a low socio-economic status. Mass media tactics include paid and unpaid outreach via TV, radio, print publications (such as magazines), newspapers and Internet outlets. To accomplish the interpersonal portion of DoT's outreach strategy, this contract supports national campaign activities through DoT's WPFL. The WPFL engages community gatekeepers in increasing registration rates among specific target populations. The WPFL initiatives provide tools to gatekeepers so they can advocate for organ donation among our target audiences. Other examples of interpersonal outreach tactics include providing messaging to donation advocates to use via social media outlets, educational tools to teachers who can reach youth, messaging and tools to organizations such as workplaces and hospitals so they can develop their own outreach efforts and motivating supporters of organ donation to become advocates of the cause. A cornerstone of DoT's public and professional education efforts is organdonor.gov and its Spanish-language counterpart, donaciondeorganos.gov. The sites educate the public about organ donation, address myths and misconceptions about the system and process, and provide a clear pathway to the public to register as organ donors. The sites also serve as a platform for disseminating information and resources to donation advocates, professionals, and gatekeepers. The content of both sites shall be managed under this contract. The Spanish version of the site, donaciondeorganos.gov, shall also be maintained via this contract. For more information about HRSA's organ donation outreach efforts, please see organdonor.gov, donaciondeorganos.gov, and facebook.com/organdonor.gov The anticipated period of performance is five years. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this requirement is 541820. The solicitation document will be available at www.fedbizopps.gov on or about August 5, 2015 with a projected closing date on or about September 4, 2015. The contact person for this requirement is Kimberly Lewis, Contract Specialist, HRSA/OAMP, Parklawn Building, Room 14W46, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857-5600; phone number +1 (555) 000-0000. All interested parties may send an email to contact@example.gov and reference the solicitation number.