R -- Respondent Driven Sampling Analysis

This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation, proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. The solicitation number is 2007-Q-10026 and is issued as a request for proposal (RFP). Award will be limited to small business concerns. The NAICS code is 541990. The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2005-11, effective July 5, 2006. The services will be performed at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Building 8 Corporate Square campus, NE Atlanta, GA 30329. The award will be a firm fixed price purchase order with a period of performance of six months from date of award. The purpose of this procurement is to obtain services for conducting analysis of National HIV Behavioral Surveillance (NHBS) Injecting Drug Users (IDU) data in Respondent Driven Sampling Analysis Tool (RDSAT). The Contractor shall perform in accordance with the enclosed Statement of Work. The Contract Specialist must receive your technical and business proposal on September 3, 2007 at no later than 03:00 P.M. local prevailing time. Questions about this requirement must be submitted by e-mail to gsanders@cdc.gov, no later than 10:00 A.M. local prevailing time on August 24, 2007. Your proposal shall be prepared in accordance with the Sections entitled Instructions, Conditions, and Notices to Offerors, and the Statement of Work. This RFP does not commit the Government to pay any costs for the preparation and submission of a proposal. It is also brought to your attention that the Contracting Officer is the only individual who can legally commit the Government to expenditure of public funds in connection with this proposed acquisition. Your proposal must provide a contact name and number, your company name and complete address, including street, city, county, state, zip code, e-mail address, Tax Identification Number (TIN), and Dun & Bradstreet Number (DUNS). The TIN must match the name of the vendor to whom the payments will be made. Please note that FAR 52.204-6 Contractor Identification Number Data Universal System (DUNS Number) and 52.204-7 Central Contractor Registration (CCR) requires any prospective awardees to have a DUNS number and be registered in the CCR database prior to award, during performance, and through final payment of any contract, basic agreement, basic ordering agreement, or blanket purchasing agreement resulting from this solicitation. If you do not have a DUNS number, you are requested to contact Dun and Bradstreet Information Services at 1-866-794-1580, or 1-800-234-3867 or via the Internet at http://www.dnb.com. If you are not registered in the CCR, you may obtain information on registration and annual confirmation requirements via the Internet at http://www.ccr.gov or by calling 1-888-227-2423, or 1-269-961-5757. Please include this information on the first page of your quotation. If the address is different from the address to which payments are mailed, you must also include the complete payment address. Requests for any information concerning this RFP should be referred only to Gloria Sanders, Contracts Specialist, via e-mail at gsanders@cdc.gov. Discussion with any other individual outside of the Contracts Office may result in rejection of a potential offerors proposal. STATEMENT OF WORK Title: RESPONDENT DRIVEN SAMPLING ANALYSIS C. 1 Background and Need The National HIV Behavioral Surveillance (NHBS) system was initiated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to help state health departments establish and maintain a surveillance system to monitor selected behaviors and access to prevention services among groups at highest risk for HIV infection. Findings from NHBS will be used to enhance understanding of risk and testing behaviors, and to develop and evaluate HIV prevention programs. NHBS activities are implemented in rotating cycles. During the first cycle of data collection (December 2003 - December 2004), surveillance activities focused on men who have sex with men (MSM). The focus of the second cycle (January 2005 - February 2006) was on injecting drug users (IDUs). The third cycle (March 2006 - October 2007) focuses on surveillance activities on heterosexuals at high risk of HIV infection (HET). These cycles will be repeated over time such that data are collected from any given risk group every three years. Each cycle is referred to by the group of interest: NHBS-MSM; NHBS-IDU; NHBS-HET. For NHBS-IDU and NHBS-HET cycles, Respondent-Driven Sampling (RDS) was used to recruit injecting drug users and heterosexuals at high risk of HIV infection for surveillance data collection. RDS starts with a limited number of peers, known as seeds, who usually are chosen by referral from key informants or through outreach. These seeds then recruit their peers into the study, who in turn, recruit their peers. For analysis of data collected using RDS, the recruiters must be linked to their recruits. These data must then be weighted to adjust for network size of the respondents and to control for bias associated with the RDS peer-driven recruitment process. In addition, because NHBS-IDU data were collected in 23 cities in the United States, these weighted estimates must be aggregated to produce a single estimate for the overall NHBS data. C.2 Project Objective The RDS Analysis Tool (RDSAT) is an analysis software program designed specifically to analyze data collected via RDS. Although RDS is being used more widely for public health research and surveillance, there is limited expertise in the scientific community in analyzing and interpreting data in RDSAT. To meet the goals of NHBS, surveillance reports and scientific papers must be developed and disseminated in a timely manner to provide needed information for HIV prevention and policy planning. Due to the lack of capacity in RDSAT analysis at CDC, these services must be purchased. C.3 Scope of Work The purpose of this acquisition is to obtain services for conducting analysis of NHBS-IDU data in RDSAT. NHBS-IDU data were collected under the CDC HIV/AIDS surveillance programs security and confidentiality guidelines. Due to these data security requirements for HIV/AIDS surveillance data, the work described in this task shall be performed during normal business hours at the CDC/National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention/Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention/Behavioral and Clinical Surveillance Branch located in Atlanta, Georgia. The contractor must be willing to reside in the metropolitan Atlanta area during the period of performance at their own expense. The CDC will not reimburse the contractor for moving expenses. The period of performance will be six months from the date of award. C.4 Technical Requirements The Contractor shall as an independent organization and not as an agent of the Government, furnish all the necessary services and qualified personnel, to perform the following contract requirements. The vendor shall provide a project plan that encompasses the RDSAT analysis of NHBS-IDU data. During the initial project meeting, the vendor and CDC BST will review the proposed plan and make modifications as necessary. This plan will be put into practice for the remainder of the task. As part of the proposed plan, the vendor shall be trained in and abide by all data security and confidentiality requirements. The tasks specified will require demonstrated knowledge and experience in: 1) RDS theory and methods; 2) Conducting analysis using RDSAT, including interpretation and reporting of RDS findings. 3) The most recent RDSAT version, features and technology. Task 1 Develop a plan for analyzing the NHBS-IDU data using RDSAT, including quality assurance checks and documentation of analysis procedures. The contractor shall: A. Identify a means for documenting analysis procedures in RDSAT, which is point-and-click software. B. Develop a written analysis plan that describes methods for achieving the objectives of each report or manuscript. C. Assess sources of bias in the NHBS-IDU data related to the key outcomes of the analysis. Provide a written summary of significant problems with bias. D. Develop a detailed, written quality assurance plan for the data analysis. This plan should include, but is not limited to, a description of checks for each sample (there will be a minimum of 23 samples and possibly more than 1 sample per city) and each outcome variable (both population proportions and prevalence estimates) per sample. Task 2 Analyze NHBS-IDU data using RDSAT and calculate aggregate estimates. The contractor shall: A. Conduct analyses to populate table shells and run other analyses as needed. B. Produce written documentation of analysis procedures that were used. C. Produce written documentation quality assurance checks that were done and how problems were resolved. D. Attend relevant local CDC BST meetings related to RDSAT data analyses (to be held in Atlanta, Georgia) C.5 Schedule of Deliverables: Item/ Ref. Description Quantity/Form Delivery Date Task 1 B. Develop an analysis plan. Electronic and one hard copy written plan. Within 2 weeks from the effective date of award. Task 1 C. Assessment of bias in NHBS-IDU data Electronic and hardcopy of written report on bias in the data. Within 1 month from the effective date of award. Task 1 D. Plan for Quality Assurance Checks Electronic and hardcopy of written plan. Within 2 months from the effective date of award. Task 2 A. Using RDSAT, analyze NHBS-IDU data Electronic and hardcopy data output; Electronic and hardcopy of tables. Within 5 months from the effective date of award. Task 2 B. Documentation of Analysis Procedures Electronic and hardcopy of analysis procedures Within 6 months from the effective date of award. Task 2 C. Documentation of Quality Assurance checks Electronic and hardcopy of completed quality assurance checks and resolution of problems. Within 6 months from the effective date of award. C.6 Government Furnished Items: The CDC Behavioral Surveillance Team (BST) staff will furnish the contractor with a work space, password-protected computer station, and software, equipment, and office supplies needed for conducting the RDSAT data analysis. CDC BST will furnish the contractor with the National HIV Behavioral Surveillance protocol titled ?National HIV Behavioral Surveillance among Injecting Drug Users Model Surveillance Protocol and operations manual titled National HIV Surveillance among Injecting Drug Users Operations Manual. The protocol assures the standardization, consistency and continuity of the NHBS system. The vendor will use the protocol and operations manual to become familiar with the use of RDS for recruitment and the data collection methods for NHBS-IDU. CDC will provide training in data security and confidentiality. Once this training is successfully completed by the vendor, CDC BST will furnish the vendor with a dataset to be analyzed, along with code books and other relevant documentation for the dataset. CDC BST will furnish the vendor with necessary table shells and outlines for reports and papers. C.7 Special Considerations By accepting the terms of this acquisition, all rights to the programs and plans are assigned to the CDC. The contractor shall provide electronic and paper copies of all source code, programs, data, documentation and other development process to the government for all work produced under the purchase order. By accepting the terms of the purchase order, the contractor understands that data collected by CDC through the HIV/AIDS surveillance system and related surveillance activities, projects, and case investigations under Section 306 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 242k) is protected at the national level by an Assurance of Confidentiality (Section 308(d) of the Public Health Service Act, 42 U.S.C. 242m(d)), which prohibits disclosure of any information that could be used to directly or indirectly identify any individual on whom a record is maintained by CDC. C.8 References National HIV Behavioral Surveillance among Injecting Drug Users Model Surveillance Protocol National HIV Surveillance among Injecting Drug Users Operations Manual. INSTRUCTIONS, CONDITIONS, AND NOTICES TO OFFERORS General Instructions To simplify the evaluation of the proposal, the offeror must submit a copy of its proposal including the following... I. Relevant Experience Please provide a description of each contract/assignment completed in the past 3-5 years relevant and similar to that in the statement of work contained herein. Please provide the name/address and point of contact for each customer. This section shall not exceed 3 pages. II. Technical Approach Please provide a one page summary of proposed approach to completing the proposed work. Please address understanding of requirements, target audience, subject matter and specific considerations/techniques proposed. III. Personnel Please provide a curriculum vitae/resume for the individual expected to provide 20% or more of the labor under this order. Please address education, work experience and any relevant training of the individual. Please explain the role the individual is to play in completing the statement of work. IV. Past Performance Please provide a list of references that can validate the quality of performance on prior similar work. Include references for work listed in item I. above, in addition to any others. Please provide the following for each reference, not to exceed a total of five: Name; Employer; Address; Telephone Number/E-mail address; Description of work for which they are provided as a reference; individual?s role?. V. Budget Proposal (Price for Quotation) The offeror shall submit a Price Quote proposal in sufficient detail to allow for cost analysis that will be utilized to establish the reasonableness of the proposed costs. Include labor rates and number of hours for each individual proposed under the order. List any non-labor costs associated with the work.