RFI Cover Page RIRAS.docx

Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Radiotherapy Incident Reporting and Analysis System (RIRAS) Software License Request for Information (RFI)

1. Introduction This Request for Information (RFI) is issued for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation nor does it restrict the government as to the ultimate acquisition approach. In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract.

The purpose of this RFI is to identify qualified vendors, who are able to meet Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) requirements for Radiotherapy Incident Reporting and Analysis System (RIRAS) Software License. Accordingly, this RFI constitutes neither a Request for Quote, Request for Proposal (RFP), nor a guarantee that one will be issued by the Government in the future; furthermore, it does not commit the Government to contract for any services described herein. Any contract/order that might be awarded based on information received or derived from this market research will be the outcome of the competitive process. The purpose of this RFI is to obtain market information on capable sources of supply, industry best practices, and input specific to the information provided. The Government is not responsible for any cost incurred by industry in furnishing this information. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested vendor's expense. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future RFP, if any is issued. Any information submitted by respondents to this RFI is strictly voluntary. All submissions will become Government property and will not be returned. Interested vendors are responsible for adequately marking proprietary, restricted or competition sensitive information contained in their response.

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) for this requirement is 513210.

Requirement:

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Under Secretary for Health (USH), through the National Radiation Safety Committee, requires the VA National Radiation Oncology Program (NROP) office, in cooperation with the National Health Physics Program, requires the software licenses, maintenance, and support for the Radiotherapy Incident Reporting and Analysis System (RIRAS) software which was established in 2014. RIRAS has the capability to electronically collect clinical radiotherapy adverse events and good catch (near miss) event data for approximately 15,000 Veterans treated with radiotherapy annually at 41 VHA facilities that offer radiation oncology services.

The RIRAS medical software encompasses the entire feedback loop by reporting an incident, analyzing the event for root causes, and developing interventions to prevent a recurrence. This medical event reporting software performs analysis of radiotherapy incidents and good catches and defines corrective actions and policy guidance for the field and the relevant and Radiation Oncology. The analysis reports with corrective, learning actions should be shareable with the reporter/facility and made public to the community (after de-identification) as part of the learning process. The Radiotherapy Incident Reporting and Analysis Software has the following functionalities:

1. Enables reporting of incidents by clinicians and users at radiation oncology facilities from any anonymous reporters.

2. Enable National Health Physics Program and National Radiation Oncology Program staff to analyze reported incidents.

3. Create summary of incident reports.

4. Create patient safety work products.

5. Maintains database of incidents with search and retrieve capabilities.

6. Displays statistics of reported incidents graphically.

7. Ensures privacy of patients and event reporter information.

The RIRAS medical software uses dataset radiotherapy specific medical taxonomies and data dictionaries defined in AAPM and ASTRO reports on error reporting. The peer review publication on these taxonomies can be found at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23231278. The RIRAS software records clinical, event-based data and clinicians derives clinical best practices and practice improvements.

The RIRAS software has the workflow to analyze the radiotherapy reported incidents, identify vulnerabilities of clinical processes, provide tools to identify system wide vulnerabilities and suggest substantial improvements in radiation oncology clinical workflow. It encompasses the entire feedback loop of reporting an incident, analyzing it for salient details, and developing interventions for the clinicians and technical medical staff to prevent these events from happening again. Additionally, it provides national level trends that can be viewed by the senior leaders and also suggests process improvements.

The RIRAS software records analysis reports from subject matter experts (consists of Radiation Oncologists/Physicians, Therapeutic Medical Physicists, Dosimetrists and therapy team members) with sections on corrective, learning and preventative actions which should be shared with the reporters/facility and deidentified data are made public to the radiotherapy and medical community as part of the learning process.

VA requires the RIRAS Enterprise software license as well as ongoing support. This license shall include unlimited number of clients to access the website and unlimited number of facility licenses to use the software within the VA intranet.

Additional training as well as remote service access shall be included as Optional Tasks.

1. RFI Response Instructions

NOTE: The capability package must be clear, concise, and complete. VA is under no obligation to provide feedback to the company, or to contact the company for clarification of any information submitted in response to this RFI.

Provide the following information:

1. Provide Company Information:

1. Company Name

1. CAGE/UEI Number under which the company is registered in SAM.gov

1. Company Address

1. Point of contact name

1. Telephone number

1. Email address

1. For small business concerns, indicate whether at least 50 percent of the total amount paid by the Government will be paid to firms that are similarly situated.

1. Company Business Size and Status for NAICS (513210).

1. Brief summary describing your company’s technical approach to meeting the requirements, to include;

1. List any existing contracting vehicles you have with the VA that you would recommend for this requirement.

1. Does the draft PWS provide sufficient detail to describe the technical and functional requirements that encompass the requirement? If “NO”, please provide your technical and functional comments/recommendations/questions on elements of the draft outline that may contribute to a more accurate proposal submission and efficient, cost-effective effort.

1. Your company’s intent and ability to meet the set aside requirement in accordance with VAAR 852.219-73 (JAN 2023) (DEVIATION) VA Notice of Total Set-Aside for Certified SDVOSB and 13 CFR §125.6, which states the contractor will not pay more than 50 percent of the amount paid by the Government to it to firms that are not SDVOSBs. Your response shall include information as to available personnel and financial resources; full names of proposed team members and the PWS requirements planned to be subcontracted to them, which must include the prime planned percentage or the names of the potential team members that may be used to fulfill the set aside requirement.

1. Do you offer a deployable software that meets the VA needs for the Radiotherapy Incident Reporting and Analysis Program?

1. Does your offered software have a VA approved Authority to Operate (ATO)?

1. Have you deployed this software for use within an enterprise VA network?

Responses to this RFI shall be submitted electronically by 9:00 AM Eastern Standard Time, May 29, 2024 via email the Technology Acquisition Center (TAC) point of contact, Contract Specialist, Mario Awad at Mario.Awad@va.gov and Contracting Officer, Kathryn Pantages at Kathryn.Pantages@va.gov.

Note: Please do not wait until the last minute to submit your responses. To avoid submission of late responses, we recommend the transmission of your response file 24 hours prior to the required response due date and time. Please be advised that timeliness is determined by the date and time an Offeror’s response is received by the Government not when an Offeror attempted transmission. Offerors are encouraged to review and ensure that sufficient bandwidth is available on their end of the transmission.

All responsible sources may submit a response in accordance with the following:

All proprietary/company confidential material shall be clearly marked on every page that contains such.

No more than 10 pages (excluding transmittal page)

VA will not be able to grant any extensions to this RFI.

See attached document: DRAFT Product Description.