FA2553-PWFD-RFI.pdf

Unclassified

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION

OPERATIONAL TEST AND TRAINING READINESS DIVISION

1.0 Description

1.1 The US Space Force (USSF) is seeking information on how an interested contractor could provide innovative ways to better support the health and wellness of Guardians, leveraging technology and science-based approaches through Continuous Fitness Assessment (CFA). In support of this effort, USSF is interested in gathering industry feedback on a Portable Wearable Fitness Device (PWFD) and the software and infrastructure required to implement a program leveraging these devices in compliance with DoD security requirements based on the research finding that movement throughout the day coupled with routine, purposeful physical activity, is the healthiest way to maintain fitness.

1.2 THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This Request for Information (RFI) is issued solely for information and planning purposes (market research). This RFI does not constitute a solicitation (Request for Proposal (RFP) or Request for Quotation (RFQ)) or a promise to issue a solicitation in the future. This RFI does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service whatsoever. Responses to this RFI are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. Furthermore, the Government is not, at this time seeking proposals and will not accept any unsolicited proposals. Respondents are advised that the Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this RFI. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the responding party’s expense. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future solicitation, if any is issued. Any information submitted by respondents to this RFI is strictly voluntary. All submissions become Government property and will not be returned. Proprietary information will be safeguarded in accordance with the applicable Government regulations. Proprietary information or trade secrets shall be clearly identified.

2.0 Background

2.1 USSF’s Holistic Health Approach (HHA) is an innovative, science-based approach to health and resilience that emphasizes all eight domains of Total Force Fitness: social, physical, financial, spiritual, preventive care, environmental, nutritional, and psychological. The primary prevention and public health arm of HHA focuses on strengthening connections (across the installation and in the community) and building skills to promote protective factors and increase positive behaviors across Space Force Total Force.

HHA builds skills to promote shared protective factors and optimize overall health, increase positive behaviors, and maintain a higher level of individual and unit readiness across all echelons of influence. HHA is comprised of the following three elements to promote long-term and short-term health outcomes: Continuous Fitness Assessment (CFA), Performance Health Optimization (PHO), and Capacity. CFA is a science-based capability that promotes continuous purposeful physical activity and moves away from episodic preparation consistent with episodic physical fitness assessments.

2.2 The Air Force Research Lab’s Human Factors Directorate (AFRL/RH) is currently operating under a two-year study measuring Guardian cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) as VO2 max;

purposeful physical activity (via the PWFD’s Intensity-minutes or IM function); and an interim muscular fitness component, measured via the PWFD (push-ups). Additionally, the study will refine the use of a Fitness Index by combining voluntarily submitted body composition data with CRF. CFA data will be imported into a secure data repository to monitor progress toward human performance and health goals, and study compliance.

Two principle aims of the CFA are to demonstrate the ability to accurately appraise meaningful, evidence-based physical fitness metrics in an ongoing, continuous manner and to quantify and qualify consistent purposeful physical activity via wearable fitness technology.

CRF is the central fitness metric as it relates to health. Requiring appropriate levels of CRF, and consistent weekly levels of moderate to vigorous-intensity activity, provides adaptive stimulus that develops and maintains beneficial levels of cardiorespiratory efficiency, decreases the incidence of obesity/overweight and the sequelae of diseases that often accompany it, lowers musculoskeletal injury (MSKI) risk, and mitigates the incident-risk of all-cause mortality.

3.0 PWFD Requirements

3.1 General

• PWFD has an intuitive and easy-to-use user interface and design.

• PWFD includes options that can support different Guardian needs, such as the size of device and ability to change attachment method for comfort and appearance.

• PWFD can integrate with other device(s) to support data import for other assessments, such as: movement screens, training load assessment, body composition, speed/agility evaluations, and tailored fitness programming for the Guardian that is transmitted from another device and displayed on the PWFD.

• PWFD has customizable user interface that clearly and accurately conveys important data points and trends so that Guardians can track their own data and progress against standards.

3.2 Fitness Metrics Collection Requirements

• PWFD can passively and actively measure intensity (quality) and volume (quantity) of the user’s daily physical activity.

• PWFD can collect and store user fitness and exercise data safely in a broad set of work, sport, and physical activity settings, to include contact sports, weightlifting, tactical training, and combatives in water, heat and cold weather that meets the DAF climate standards as identified in DAFMAN 36-2905, Section 3.10 Course and Track Safety and Environmental Conditions (21 Apr 2022), and at altitude.

• PWFD has on-device memory that can record exercise data for a to-be-determined period of time.

• PWFD and related algorithm(s) can measure – at a minimum – CRF, muscular strength/endurance (work-capacity), and velocity.

• PWFD’s CRF algorithm(s) should be reliable, compared against direct-measure (metabolic cart) cardiopulmonary exercise testing, at a level equal to or exceeding widely used timed-distance events (e.g., 1.5-mile run).

• PWFD and related algorithm(s) can differentiate between increases in cardiorespiratory demand as a result of physical exertion versus increases in cardiorespiratory demands resulting from psychological/environmental stressors.

3.3 Data Privacy and Security Requirements

• PWFD and data architecture encrypt the data end-to-end (including field level encryption, and at all points of the data pipeline).

• PWFD storage cannot be manually accessed, modified, or changed in any way.

• PWFD storage is limited in capacity to the amount reasonably needed to store collected data.

• Access to potential Personally Identifiable Information (PII)/Personal Health Information

(PHI) is controlled at the database level.

• Data infrastructure can create roles, and limit role access to certain tranches of data, and generate adaptable data displays tied to role access levels and needs within the system.

• Vendor tests with the National Security Agency (NSA), etc. to prove wearable system resilience; security is independently verifiable by the government.

• Compliance with DoD Cloud Computing Security Requirements Guide (SRG); hosted on

Cloud One IL4+; NIPRNet; FedRAMP Moderate.

• Ability to manage device configurations to Department of Defense (DoD) Memorandum for Senior Pentagon Leadership Commanders of the Combatant Commands Defense Agency and DoD Field Activity Directors, Subject: “Use of Unclassified Mobile Applications in DoD” (mobile device manager); ability to remotely disable accounts, or to disable accounts on sync; software that reaches out to all devices in inventory and has the ability to push required software updates to all devices.

• GPS data collected by the PWFD can be protected and its transmission controlled.

• Protect data through encryption or other means and transfer data securely from the device to a fully authorized government software application.

• Wearable fitness device is capable of pairing and transferring data to government-approved software application that can be accessed from a Service Member's personal mobile, or government-issued device, such as a cell phone or tablet.

• Passive data collection from the wearable device into a government database without the need for reliance on a personal or government-issued wearable fitness device.

• A "bring your own device" software architecture that allows Guardians to volunteer the transfer and limited use of wearable fitness data from personally owned sources, such as a personal wearable fitness device, for government-use purposes.

3.4 Data Infrastructure/Dashboard Requirements

• An athlete data management system, or similar capability, with adaptable data displays tailored to role access and privilege needs, from high-level overviews for supervisors to raw data for Guardians and support personnel requiring access.

• A user-customizable User Interface (UI) that clearly and accurately conveys important data points and trends, enabling members to track their progress against standards.

• Algorithms that automatically flag or enable the manual flagging of pertinent fitness metrics based on defined user thresholds.

• The ability to have unit or team-based leaderboards for review, encouragement, or competition.

• PWFD data architecture that enables pairing and data transfer to a government-approved software application that can be accessed from a Service Member's personal or government-issued device, such as a cell phone or tablet.

• Capability that enables the passive data collection from the PWFD into an approved government data repository without the need for reliance on a personal or government-issued mobile device, such as a cellphone or tablet.

• A "bring your own device" data architecture that permits Guardians to volunteer the transfer and limited use of wearable fitness data from personally owned sources, such as a personal wearable fitness device or cellphone/tablet, for government-use purposes.

4.0 Requested Information

4.1 PWFD

• Describe any PWFDs currently available that are capable of automatically measuring cardiorespiratory fitness.

• Describe any PWFDs you plan to make available in the next three years that are capable of automatically measuring cardiorespiratory fitness.

• Describe any PWFDs currently available that are capable of automatically measuring muscular strength/endurance (work capacity), power, or any other related components of fitness.

• Describe any PWFDs you plan to make available in the next three years that are capable of automatically measuring muscular strength/endurance (work capacity), power, or any other related components of fitness.

• Approximately how many devices can your company produce in a single year?

• Has your company encountered any supply chain difficulties that would impact production? Please describe any, if so.

• Please provide an overview of your supply chain risk management process.

• What metrics, if any, do your solutions use/will use to measure muscular strength/endurance (work capacity), power, or any other related components of fitness?

• Describe any PWFDs currently available that employ end-to-end encryption from the edge to a central database.

• Describe any innovative data encryption, data security, or data privacy elements of your solution that are not yet widely used.

• What would you need from the government to secure user data, including health metrics?

• Can health metrics and data from your wearable be used with third-party data visualization tools?

• How does the user access the data collected through the wearable?

• How is aggregated data from the wearable presented to the user?

• Does your wearable solution include GPS?

o If yes, for what purpose?

o If yes, can it be disabled?

• Does your wearable solution include Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)?

o If yes, for what purpose?

• Can you provide a budgetary estimate for 7,000-8,000 devices that meet the USSF’s requirements as stated in Section 3?

4.2 Data Infrastructure/Dashboard

• What experience, government or commercial, do you have securing and transmitting large quantities of sensitive data?

• Describe any solutions you currently have available capable of aggregating, analyzing, tracking, and visualizing large quantities of sensitive data.

• What experience, if any, do you have with customizing your solution to meet the security and privacy needs of a customer?

• What experience, if any, do you have with working with other product and service providers to provide an integrated solution?

• Does your solution utilize a cloud services provider? If yes, which one?

5.0 RFI Responses

5.1 Interested parties are requested to respond to this RFI with a white paper addressing PWFD Requirements and Requested Information, as stated in this RFI Sections 3 and 4:

• White papers will be in Microsoft Word for Office compatible format o Can contain no more than 10 pages. The title page and front matter such as transmittal letter, cover page, and table of contents will not count against the page limit.

o 8.5 x 11-inch pages o Font no smaller than 12-point Times New Roman unless for artwork and/or tables which can be no smaller than 8-point Times New Roman or Arial o Line spacing 1.0 or greater o 1-inch margins for all 4 edges of pages

• Provide Offeror Business Information o Name, mailing address, phone number, and e-mail of designated point of contact o Cage Code o Unique Entity ID o Business size classification (large, small, or other) o Socio-economic status o The facility security clearance of the responder

• Proprietary information will be safeguarded in accordance with the applicable Government regulations. Proprietary information, if any, should be kept to a minimum and MUST BE

CLEARLY MARKED.

• In order to review the response, PROPRIETARY information may be given to Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC), Systems Engineering and Technical Assistance (SETA) and/or Advisory and Assistance Services (A&AS) contractors working for the Government. Non-government support contractors listed below may be involved in the review of any responses submitted. These may include but are not limited to: The Aerospace Corporation, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Emolbi, Tecolote Research Inc., Palski & Associates, MITRE, MIT/Lincoln Labs, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Galapagos Federal LLC, Tyto Athene, ManTech International, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL), Georgia

Tech Research Institute (GTRI), Utah State University Space Dynamics Laboratory (USU/SDL), and TechSolutions Inc. If Respondents disagree to the release of its RFI response to any of the firms, the Respondent must clearly state this restriction in the cover letter accompanying the RFI responses.

• All submissions become Government property and will not be returned.

6.0 Submittal Instructions

6.1 All responses shall be submitted via email to the Points of Contact identified below. All submissions shall include company name and point of contact information including name, position, telephone number, and email address. Any questions related to the RFI should be directed to both POCs listed below.

Points of Contact

Crystal Price Contracting Branch Division Chief crystal.price.6@spaceforce.mil

Cassie DeBree Contracting Officer cassie.debree@spaceforce.mil

6.2 Responses received after the due date may not be considered in the Government’s analyses.

The Government may subsequently contact respondents for clarification on the information submitted.

6.3 Oral communications are not permissible. No telephonic communications will be permitted.