Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF JUNE 09, 2012 FBO #3850
DOCUMENT

99 -- UpToDate Subscription or Equal Request for Information - Attachment

Notice Date

6/7/2012
 

Notice Type

Attachment
 

NAICS

511120 — Periodical Publishers
 

Contracting Office

Department of Veterans Affairs;Program Contracting Activity Central;6150 Oak Tree Blvd, Suite 300;Independence OH 44131
 

ZIP Code

44131
 

Solicitation Number

VA70112I0256
 

Response Due

6/14/2012
 

Archive Date

8/13/2012
 

Point of Contact

Jonathan Chisholm
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

1.0 Introduction: This sources sought notice is for information and planning purposes only and shall not be construed as a solicitation or as an obligation on the part of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). VA is currently conducting market research to locate qualified, experienced and interested potential sources. Responses will not be considered as proposals, nor will any award be incurred by interested parties in responding to this sources sought announcement. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is seeking interested sources (contractors) for a near-future solicitation and procurement for a VHA wide subscription to the UpToDate Medical Database or an equal service. At this time, no solicitation exists. Therefore, PLEASE DO NOT REQUEST A COPY OF THE SOLICITATION. 1.1Objectives The desired goals of the nationwide provision of a commercial Clinical Healthcare Knowledge Based Resources are as follows: 1.1.1To provide access nationwide to standard knowledge based clinical healthcare information resources that will build on the enterprise wide availability of the New England Journal of Medicine and other knowledge-based resources. 1.1.2Initiating a nationwide, centralized purchase to capitalize on the economies of scale offered by vendors. 1.1.3Negotiating one license/contract to decrease the current contracting and reviewing efforts that are required at the facility and/or VISN level and thereby avoid the costs and workload associated with multiple procurements. There are currently 51 contract actions for this product that covers the entire VA network 1.1.4Making this Clinical Healthcare Knowledge Product available through CPRS (Computerized Patient Record System), the VA's Electronic Health Record, nationwide to insure consistent access at the bedside for all VHA health professionals and staff. 2.0Scope of Work: 2.0.1The vendor will provide all sites on the VHA network with access to a single online, web-based product. Authentication will be through IP address validation on an enterprise basis, eliminating the need for users to enter identification, username and/or password. 2.0.2An unrestricted number of simultaneous users are to have immediate access from any web-enabled computer within VHA. It is required that all authorized remote users with VPN access have access to the product. 2.0.3Currently there are 153 VHA libraries providing remote access through Athens authentication service. Product should have technical capability to include Athens authentication for remote users. 2.0.4The contractor shall ensure an Internet browser, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer or Mozilla's Firefox, enables Veterans Health Affairs sites/authorized users to search and retrieve topic reviews in the aforementioned specialties/subspecialties. 2.0.5The contractor shall provide all content and related software maintenance and support. 2.0.6The contractor shall provide content updates on an ongoing basis and provide alerts for any updates that may change the management of patient treatment 2.0.7The contractor's database shall be comprised of accurate, complete, unbiased, evidence-based, and peer-reviewed information authored by specialists in that topic. 2.0.8The contractor's database content currency shall include a systematic process for reviewing and updating topics and a description of this process shall be made available. 2.0.9The product shall employ a simple grading system for evidence. Evidence should be graded for both the strength of the recommendation and quality of the evidence upon which the recommendation is based. 2.0.10The contractor shall offer alerting features to notify users of new content since the last update. Alert content shall focus on information that is patient-oriented and with the potential to change current practice of health care providers. 2.0.11The database must have search tools enabling users to find/retrieve all medical topic reviews on search topics in one interface. The clinical topic review database shall be a standalone product and not require the VHA to subscribe to additional products in order to provide complete clinical topic reviews to users. 2.0.12Continuing Education/Continuing Medical Education The contractor's online product shall directly provide continuing education/continuing medical education credit by approved accrediting agency/agencies for searching clinical questions within the database. Earning approved continuing education/continuing medical education shall be available for conducting clinical question searches for physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners. Physicians shall receive AMA Category 1 CME, users shall be able to track CME activity after establishing an account, and should be able to directly redeem CME credit from the product. 2.1Information Scope The product should include: 2.1.1Information that reflects current practice issues and supports clinical decision making. 2.1.2Current awareness information for the healthcare professionals. 2.1.3Comprehensive information in a single product available for stand-alone purchase or license, independent of complementary or companion products offered by the vendor. 2.1.4Related patient education material. 2.1.5Database content shall include, but not be limited to, extensive coverage of Emergency Medicine, Internal Medicine, Allergy and Immunology, Cardiovascular Medicine, Dermatology, Endocrinology and Diabetes, Family Medicine, Gastroenterology, Hepatology, Hematology, Hospital Medicine, Infectious Diseases, Nephrology and Hypertension, Neurology, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Oncology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Sleep Medicine, Rheumatology, and Surgery. 2.1.6 Components of the clinical topic review (diseases, conditions, symptoms, and other presentations) shall include the following information fields: "Date of record/review update for each entry "Author(s)/editor(s) of record/review update for each entry "Author(s)/editor(s) credentials for each entry "Author(s)/editor(s) affiliation of record/review update for each entry "Specialty peer reviewer(s), credentials & affiliation of record/review update for each entry "General Information/Overview "Epidemiology/Incidence/Prevalence/Causes/Risk Factors "Pathophysiology "Diagnosis/Prognosis/Treatment/Laboratory Tests/Complications/Prevention/Screening "Information for Patients written at different levels to meet the varying needs of patients "Hyperlinks to MEDLINE abstracts within the body of the record and in record/review references section "Graphics (figures, pictures, graphs, tables, etc.) integrated into record/review that can be printed or exported "References/Guidelines section with hyperlinks to MEDLINE abstracts "Hyperlinks to related record/review topics "Summary/Recommendations with grading "Provide interactive medical specialty calculators, i.e. cardiac output, peak expiratory flow, etc. "Provide a fully integrated drug database including drug to drug interaction information. "Provide prescribing, dosing, and adverse effects of drugs listed for treatment reviews. "Provide integrated link with in topic reviews to Logical Images Visual Dx product, including images and its differential diagnostic tool 2.1.7 Components of the clinical topic review for drug information shall include the following fields: "Medical Safety Issues/Alerts "Brand Names "Pharmacologic Category "Dosing (Adults, Elderly, Pediatric, etc.) and Forms (capsule, tablet, liquid, etc.) "Generic Alternative availability "Administration, Use, Contraindications, Warnings/Precautions "Specific Populations (Pregnancy Risk Factor/Lactation/Breast Feeding, Pediatric, Geriatric, etc.) "Dietary Considerations "Mechanism of Action "Metabolism/Interactions "Pharmacodynamics/Kinetics "References section "Graphics (figures, pictures, graphics, tables, etc.) integrated into record/review that can be printed or exported. "Hyperlinks to related record/review topics 2.2Information Quality 2.2.1 Information is accurate, authoritative, and relevant. Database content shall be written by expert physicians in the specialty and peer-reviewed by other experts in the specialty. Credentials and affiliations of the authors and reviews shall be included in the content. Content must be written at the medical provider level. 2.2.2Authors and sources are well recognized subject experts in their fields. 2.2.3"Best practice", evidence-based information, or treatment practice guideline information is included. 2.2.4Policies for determining validity and standards for inclusion of material are well described. 2.3Usability 2.3.1Navigation within the system is logical and is easy to use. 2.3.2The product has "user friendly" help and direction aids. Searching and navigating the database content. The contractor shall provide users an intuitive navigation interface for searching and reading through results of the database. Users shall be able to: "Enter a search phrase consisting of one or more terms or select a term from drop down menu of possible matches after typing the first few characters of the term. "Enter names of diseases, symptoms, laboratory abnormalities, procedures, drugs, classes of drugs, etc. to retrieve topical reviews. "Enter common synonyms, abbreviations, and acronyms that will be mapped to the appropriate topical review(s) in display results. "Search for drug information and retrieve topic reviews containing information about the drug. "Search for drug information by retrieving the drug record. "Search for drug interactions by entering drug name to display a complete list of interactions for the drug. "Choose and use medical specialty calculators interactively by entering required values/units of information to determine mathematical calculation. "Sort search results for display through the use of categorization options such as adult, pediatric, etc. "Browse search results by positioning mouse pointer over search results to display topical review outline. "Find specific text within a topic review using the product's find tool. "Select among various output options, including printing all or selected portions of the topical review, e-mailing, downloading, and exporting. "Access a specific section of topic review by clicking on the section heading name, in the topical review outline of the record. "View and/or access, print, and export MEDLINE abstracts of a topical review reference. "Shall enable Full Text linking though the VHA's open URL Link Resolver and either Pubmed or the VHA's Pubmed LinkOut subscriptions. 2.4Currency 2.4.1Updated regularly, at least quarterly 2.5 Access, content, support 2.5.1Product is 508 compliant. (http://www.section508.gov/) 2.5.1.1If product is not 508 compliant, vendor must describe measures being taken to bring product into compliance and date, within 12 months of contract award, that product will be 508 compliant. OR 2.5.1.2. If product is not 508 compliant and vendor must describe why no work is being done to make it 508 compliant. 2.5.2Access to be granted through IP address validation on an enterprise basis, eliminating the need for users to enter identification, username and/or password. 2.5.3An unrestricted number of simultaneous users are to have immediate 24/7 access from any web-enabled computer throughout VHA. It is required that all authorized remote users (with VPN, dial-up, wireless, etc. access) have access to the product through any VA networked computer and/or CPRS. A username and/or password option must be offered for remote users if needed. 2.5.4The product is compatible with most standard web browsers, which have cookies enabled. To insure privacy, the product uses session cookies rather than persistent cookies. 2.5.5The product is compatible with the Windows environment. 2.5.6All site content and support of the web site is the responsibility of the contractor and will be provided 24/7 This includes tech support to VHA users nationwide. 2.5.7System downtime is minimal and VA project manager is notified when such occurs. 2.5.8Information is easily printed. 2.5.9The product's licensing agreement must permit free use for educational purposes of all pictures and graphics. 2.5.10Single point of contact for customer service issues is assigned to VA 2.5.11Questions are responded to on the same business day. 2.5.12Monthly usage statistics on the number of clinical topic records in the database accessed are available to the system administrator on an enterprise level. 2.5.13The product should be accessible via a variety of Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) platforms including the Blackberry. 2.5.14Graphics, pictures, and/or images that are searchable is highly desirable. 2.5.15The contractor should offer training services. On an as requested basis, training session (web-based or live) will be set up to train VHA staff on use of the product. Specialized training sessions may be requested for VA library staff. 2.5.16Availability of usage statistics at an IP level is highly desirable. 2.5.17Information or text can be emailed among VHA colleagues. 2.5.18 Be comparable with DOD/MHS clinical reference database products. Due to the increasing movement toward joint venture activities, as well as recognizing the impact of realignments and consolidations resulting from the BRAC, has prompted further consideration of seeking a MHS solution for knowledge-based electronic medical resources. Particularly given that medical personnel from different services and the VA will be working side-by-side at Joint Venture Sites, ensuring equal and comparable levels of access to a clinical reference database on which to assist in making clinical decisions, will help promote consistently high quality care and patient safety. 2.5.19 Provide 30 days prior notice of accessibility unavailability resulting from upgrade or other electronic maintenance requirements. Notice shall be accomplished by sending an email to the Technical POC identified in Section 4.7 and by posting a notice to the Web site. 2.5.20 The offeror shall explain any enhancements incorporated into the product in regards to database content, usability, and updated information content/reliability. The overall editorial review and updating policy process for delivering authoritative evidence-based and current topical reviews, as well as address the methodology for the evidence grading system of treatment recommendations
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/VA/ISC/OISC/VA70112I0256/listing.html)
 

Document(s)

Attachment
 

File Name: VA701-12-I-0256 VA701-12-I-0256.docx (https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=356996&FileName=VA701-12-I-0256-000.docx)

Link: https://www.vendorportal.ecms.va.gov/FBODocumentServer/DocumentServer.aspx?DocumentId=356996&FileName=VA701-12-I-0256-000.docx

 

Note: If links are broken, refer to Point of Contact above or contact the FBO Help Desk at 877-472-3779.
 

Place of Performance

Address: National

Zip Code: N/A
 

Record

SN02769943-W 20120609/120608000448-b902a870576ce15d70c44428907ec5e3 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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