R410--National Radiation Oncology Community Care Portal High Volume Pilot Program

SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE ONLY. Department of Veterans Health Administration, Network Contracting Office 5 is conducting market research only to determine the availability of qualified Contractors capable of providing detailed and precise radiation oncology data. This data is requisite for the operational goal of ensuring quality of precision oncology care for Veterans. Responses will be used to determine the appropriate strategy for a potential acquisition. Please clearly identify any information your company considers sensitive or proprietary. This notice is issued solely for information and planning purposes - it does not constitute a Request for Quotation (RFQ), or a promise to issue an RFQ in the future. This notice does not commit the U.S. Government to contract for any supply or service. Further, the U.S. Government is not seeking quotes, or proposals at this time and will not accept unsolicited quotes in response to this Sources Sought Notice. The U.S. Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this notice. Submittals will not be returned to the responder. Not responding to this notice does not preclude participation in any future RFQ, if any is issued. A. GENERAL INFORMATION 1. Title of Project: Radiation Oncology Community Care Portal High Volume Pilot 2. Program Description: The VHA NROP has developed software and database called Health Information and Gateway Exchange (HINGE) and has an ongoing Granular Radiotherapy Information Database (GRID) project dedicated to the prospective ingestion of VA radiotherapy data and its integration with the VA clinical record. However, the majority of Veterans receive radiotherapy in the community (outside of VA facilities). While the VA pays for this care, the treatment and related data that are recaptured by the VA is often severely limited or absent, hampering continuity of care and subsequent care decisions, quality improvement, operations, research initiatives, and the overall integrity of the clinical record. Because these data are generated in the community, the NROP team is seeking to partner with the Contractor as a high-volume high-quality community care entity to establish a working framework to capture these important data and link them with discrete referral event(s). 3. Scope of Work: The contract encompasses the supply of detailed, precise radiation oncology data. This data is requisite for the operational goal of ensuring quality of precision oncology care for Veterans. Importantly, the majority of Veterans receive radiotherapy outside of the VA itself, and the details of these treatments are often not available within VA records. The contract will include all information listed in SOW that will pilot both retrospective and prospective data capture for the large number of radiation treatments occurring at community care facilities including VA academic affiliates via the Community Care Radiotherapy Provider Information and Clinical Referral Support System (CCRPI-CRSS). The Contractor shall furnish all labor, material, supplies, equipment, qualified personnel, and any other resources necessary to accomplish the deliverables described in the Statement of Work (SOW), except as may otherwise be specified in this contract. This project will take place in a single phase over the course of a single year, with the potential for up to 6 months no-cost extension to complete contract deliverables. 4. Performance Period: The period of performance is twelve (12) months-base period with an additional six (6) months no-cost-extension option period from date of award. 5. Type of Contract: Firm-Fixed-Price 6. Place of Performance: Work will be performed remotely as well as on-site at Contractor s clinic(s). B. CONTRACT AWARD MEETING The Contractor shall not commence performance on the tasks in this SOW until the COR has conducted a kickoff meeting or has advised the Contractor that a kickoff meeting is waived. C. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS 1. All written deliverables will be phrased in language understood by a general audience without advanced technical knowledge. Statistical and other technical terminology will not be used without providing a glossary of terms. 2. The Contractor shall have 15 calendar days to deliver the final deliverable from date of receipt of the government s comments. 3. The Contractor shall be paid monthly for work that is consistent with the Tasks and Associated Deliverables described herein. The Contractor shall provide a brief written summary of work to-date, with supporting materials, to facilitate VA review of Contractor s progress. Upon each successful monthly review, VA will disburse interval funds. If review for a given month is deemed unsuccessful, interval funds will be held until subsequent successful review. 4. The Contractor will not be held accountable in interval funding reviews for any failures or delays of the VHA to provide access or permissions to CCRPI-CRSS or any data sources or necessary resources, personnel or IT clearances, etc. provided that the Contractor proactively initiates and expeditiously engages in and fulfills all requests and other requirements as soon as reasonably achievable, and makes full-faith attempts to overcome any barriers encountered, whether through allocation of alternative personnel, seeking of additional support, implementation of alternative technology, modification of communication strategy, etc. 5. This contract will not be construed to modify in any way existing contracts between Contractor and the VA, and the Contractor will therefore be expected to sustain their existing VA referral handling processes and capabilities (at minimum as a backup/failsafe option in the event of CCRPI-CRSS downtime or issues), in addition to the workflows established as part of this contract. 6. Throughout the work, the Contractor shall collaborate closely with members of the CCRPI-CRSS and broader NROP team and shall be responsive and answerable to NROP leadership or designees and shall maintain and provide to VA a list of active points of contact. 7. The Contractor shall securely transfer all extracted data, reports, and other materials to VA custody via VA-designated system(s) using VA-designated method(s).8. The Contractor shall participate actively in meetings and discussions as initiated by CCRPI-CRSS team, and will proactively raise questions, concerns, and/or any other discussion items with the CCRPI-CRSS team in a timely fashion. Discussions may include but will not be limited to system assessments, feature engineering, usefulness and usability, barriers, clinical workflow optimization and implementation, rollout strategies, and brainstorming activities. In all cases, the Contractor shall furnish qualified personnel with relevance for designated topic areas or specific items or queries. D. SPECIFIC MANDATORY TASKS AND ASSOCIATED DELIVERABLES Description of Tasks and Associated Deliverables: In accordance with the Scope of Work outlined in Section A, the Contractor shall: Task One: Identify and extract data on all Veterans treated at Contractor or Contractor s affiliates: Creating a comprehensive list of all Veterans referred by the VA for community-based radiotherapy, whose care is paid for by the VA, and who are treated with radiotherapy at one of Contractor s main and/or affiliate radiation treatment facilities. This list is to include demographic details (name, sex, date of birth, and SSN or partial SSN), billing/referral details (VA referral identifier, billing claims identifier), and consult and treatment details (date of initial consultation, date of simulation, course start and end date(s), delivered fractions, delivered dose, treatment site [anatomical], and location of first treatment [facility]). This may include an assessment of both current and historical systems for radiotherapy initiated between January 1, 2012, through date of initiation of work on the contract. Identifying challenges with and assessing completeness of data extraction Creating a written report detailing methodology and efforts/burden to collect #1, as well as the challenges/barriers/issues identified in #2, including a high-level summary, and any incidental items or findings of note. Deliverables: Written report detailing methodology, insights, and dataset (see #3) Data manifest (see #1) Task Two: Participate in the development and implementation of the Community Care Radiotherapy Provider Information and Clinical Referral Support System (CCRPI-CRSS): Collaborating with the CCRPI-CRSS team members including other contractors as relevant to establish secure and robust access to the CCRPI-CRSS interface. This activity will also include establishing active user engagement with the system, assisting with troubleshooting access process, connection and overall implementation under different IT architectures actively used by the Contractor. Providing, documenting, and organizing iterative feedback to the CCRPI-CRSS team on system utility and usability, design, unmet or only partially met needs, performance and efficiency, issues, and ideas/opportunities for improving efficiency of use and ease of engagement, usefulness of the system, and ensuring data accuracy and completeness. Developing, evaluating/studying, and iterating upon clinical workflow implementation of referral intake, distribution/processing/completion, and ultimately data return process via CCRPI-CRSS, potentially with engagement of multiple stakeholders/roles, to arrive at optimal implementation of CCRPI-CRSS in workflow. This process should be well-documented and should capture the time/effort demands at each step of the process, with formative feedback and reporting provided to CCRPI-CRSS team throughout. Monitoring and tracking incoming VA radiotherapy referrals to manually capture the prospective treatment of at least 100 individual Veterans (if 100 Veterans are processed prior to contracted end date, the Contractor will be expected to continue engagement with CCRPI-CRSS for additional Veterans through the end of the contract). This will also include timely completion of a patient-specific case report form following initial consultation (ideally within 10 days after completed consultation) and additional patient-specific case report forms following completion of treatment, where relevant/planned (ideally within 30 days after completion of treatment). All planning and treatment-related DICOM-RT data associated with measurable radiotherapy dose will be uploaded to CCRPI-CRSS; these include but may not be limited to: initial simulation images (if any) and registration details (if any) used for treatment planning purposes (plus any additional re-simulation images along with their image registration details), any/all RTPLAN data receiving measurable radiotherapy dose (including plan sum for aggregate delivered dose, where relevant), any/all RTDOSE grid(s) associated with RTPLAN at native/as-calculated/as-planned resolution, any/all RTSTRUCT structure sets associated with a RTPLAN receiving treatment, any/all RTRECORD objects verifying measurable radiotherapy dose (i.e. record and verify data confirming dates and doses and other details of treatments), any/all RTIMAGE objects associated with treatment verifications/setups; all DICOM-RT data should retain all original identifiers (i.e. no record anonymization) and data, and should include calculated dose volume histogram (DVH) data for all structures. Structure nomenclature will adhere to TG-263 standards where relevant. Other clinical data will also be uploaded to CCRPI-CRSS, including a treatment summary note per standard workflow, as well as completed CCRPI-CRSS patient-specific case report forms. Creating a written report thoroughly detailing all aspects of #1-4, including a high-level summary, list/manifest of Veterans treated, and any incidental items or findings of note. This report shall include a final assessment of system usefulness and usability, and optimal clinical workflow and implementation, including accounting of time/efforts and details of any barriers or challenges for implementation and/or broader rollout. Deliverables: Uploaded prescription and treatment datasets (see #4). Written report (see #5) detailing methodology, implementation workflow including pros/cons of changes over time, all project feedback, insights, and dataset. Task Three: Evaluate the feasibility of retrospective data extraction using CCRPI-CRSS: Selecting a set of 50 patient radiotherapy courses randomly from among the list of historical VA patient treatments identified in Task One. For each of these cases, a set of case report forms will be completed (as in Task Two #4), and all DICOM-RT data associated with treatment will be extracted (also as in Task Two #4) where possible, with all data being uploaded to CCRPI-CRSS in coordination with the CCRPI-CRSS team. Measuring and otherwise evaluating the time and efforts required to curate, extract, and ultimately upload the data as per #1, as well as assessing any barriers encountered preventing or otherwise hampering aspects of archival data retrieval. Assessments should include estimation of data element specific levels of effort and processes to complete specific aspects of case report form(s). Creating a written report detailing methodology and efforts/burden to collect #1, as well as the challenges/barriers/issues identified in #2, including a high-level summary, and any incidental items or findings of note. Deliverables: Uploaded prescription and treatment datasets (see #1) Written report (see #3) detailing methodology (including list of selected patients), implementation workflow, quality/completeness assessment of retrospective data extraction, and any/all project feedback, insights, and data. E. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS At least every month meet directly with CCRPI-CRSS team to report and discuss current progress and pitfalls (meeting can be virtual, in person, via phone, or any combination thereof). Every month provide written status reports detailing the status and progress of data identification/retrieval, portal functionality, clinical workflow implementation, a summary of current challenges and needs, and anticipated next steps and goals over subsequent month interval. Within 1 months of completion of this contract, the final extracted dataset for historically referred Veterans along with all keys, accompanying metadata, and descriptive README documentation shall be securely transferred to VA NROP custody. Within 1 month of completion of this contract a final document describing the process and methods for retrospective data retrieval (including case report form completion and DICOM-RT extraction), study team individual roles/contributions, findings and insights including needs assessment and both pitfalls and actual or potential solutions, and an accounting/analysis of data completeness and integrity shall be provided. Within 1 month of completion of this contract, the final extracted datasets of radiation treatments for all one hundred and (100) prospective Veteran referrals will have been securely transferred via CCRPI-CRSS. Within 1 month of completion of this contract, the final extracted datasets of radiation treatments for all fifty (50) retrospectively assessed Veteran referrals will have been securely transferred via CCRPI-CRSS. Within 1 month of completion of this contract a final document describing the process and methods for CCRPI-CRSS access and implementation, study team individual roles/contributions, findings and insights including needs assessment and both pitfalls and actual or potential solutions, detailed feedback history, and an assessment of usability and usefulness shall be provided. F. SECURITY - Information System Security The Contractor will be provided access to secure web-based VA data exchange portal for all required development, implementation, and testing support. The Contractor will be expected to maintain its own information system security as authorized for patient care. The Veterans Health Administration National Radiation Oncology Program s (NROP) quality and safety initiatives require clinical informatics infrastructure and subject matter expertise support. The NROP's mission is to enhance healthcare services for veterans undergoing radiation treatments by improving clinical documentation and data management. The subject matter expert personnel and services to sustain and enhance the Health Information Gateway and Exchange (HINGE) platform used for clinical quality surveillance program, expand capabilities for community care dashboard program, provide radiotherapy incident reporting program and analysis services, manage Ongoing Professional Practice Evaluation (OPPE) data, and conduct retrospective clinical data extraction from clinical notes. services to sustain the central intranet-based QA database with dashboard software and HINGE applications accessible at each VHA radiation oncology facility. Support for the data communication packages between the HINGE application and the central QA database housing the quality measure data and support the locally deployed HINGE data communication modules that will interface with medical devices and IT applications in Fast Interoperability Healthcare Resource (FHIR) and Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine (DICOM) protocols. NAICS: 541715 Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology) Interested & Capable Respondents in this procurement and consider themselves to have the resources, capabilities and qualifications necessary to provide above training, please respond with your: 1. Business name, address, business type, socio-economic status (e.g., Veteran-Owned, Woman-Owned, Disadvantaged Small Business, Women Owned Small Business, 8(a), Large Business, etc.), and person of contact (including telephone number & email address) and point of contact information. 2. Provide your Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number. 3. Is your company considered small under the NAICS code identified under this source sought? 4. Provide capability statement and summary of previous experience that demonstrates your company s ability, experience and resources to perform services in accordance with the Statement of Work. 5. Whether you hold GSA Federal Supply Schedule contract and contract number. Responses must be submitted by 3:00 PM (EDT) July 19, 2024. All information regarding Capabilities Statements or any other proprietary information relative to this source sought shall be submitted via email to contact@example.gov.