Justification for a Sole Source Acquisition

This document is a Justification for a Sole Source Acquisition under FAR Subpart 13.501 for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Assistant Secretary for Financial Resources (ASFR), Office of Mission Acquisition Solutions (OMAS).

The acquisition is for the ARK AI Pilot Services and Licenses, a critical high-performance computing (HPC) system application supporting the National Institutes of Health. The Government seeks to procure software services and licenses for an AI-driven medical imaging and analytics tool under the PaxeraHealth License agreement with the HPC Center for Information Technology (CIT). The solution will provide the Government with a proprietary, AI-enabled medical imaging and analytics platform that enhances diagnostic accuracy, accelerates image processing, and supports mission-critical clinical decision-making. The platform must enable investigators to develop and implement custom algorithms, create annotated training datasets, and provide inference engine and archival capabilities for datasets and algorithms. The total estimated dollar value is redacted, with performance scheduled from May 15, 2026, to May 14, 2027. The proposed contractor is PaxeraHealth Corp, located at 85 Wells Avenue, Suite 120, Newton, MA 02459. The contract type is Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP).

The justification demonstrates that market research identified no other vendors capable of meeting the Government's requirements. Two responses were received from the Notice of Intent posted on SAM.gov: ACADEN did not demonstrate required capability, and NetGuard360 lacked sufficient experience with the specific models identified in requirements. PaxeraHealth possesses unique qualifications through its integrated AI-enabled ARK imaging platform, proven compatibility with existing clinical systems, specialized radiology workflow capabilities, and ability to build, test, and deploy custom AI algorithms. The Contracting Officer determined the anticipated price is fair and reasonable based on comparison to an independent government cost estimate (IGCE), the nature of the requirement, and FFP structure. Future acquisitions will pursue full and open competition via SAM.gov or GSA contract vehicles if responsible sources submit viable proposals or capability statements.