Herbs_Supplements_SoW_Draft_2_18_2025_1.docx

Statement of Work:

Consumer Health Information on Herbs and Supplements National Library of Medicine

1. Background To assist consumers in obtaining the information needed to make informed decisions about health care, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) has developed MedlinePlus (medlineplus.gov), an easily understandable Web resource for the public. MedlinePlus contains and links information from authoritative health Web sites and content providers, especially those from the National Institutes of Health. NLM makes MedlinePlus available to the public through a variety of MedlinePlus-branded Web sites, Web services, Web applications, APIs, email and social media communications, XML files and search results.

The herbal and dietary supplement information would provide consumer-level evidence-based medicine resources for MedlinePlus. NLM requires unique authoritative information in both English and Spanish for inclusion in the MedlinePlus website. These resources will be provided as XML files and unique meta data. Regular content updates, emergency updates and a mechanism to address feedback are also required.

Herbal and dietary supplement information is an important resource for consumers, and augments the information already provided on MedlinePlus. The content coverage provided in the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database Consumer Version aligns with "A Platform for Biomedical Discovery and Data-Powered Health, National Library of Medicine Strategic Plan 2017-2027” located at https://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/plan/lrp17/NLM_StrategicReport2017_2027.pdf;

to Goal 2 “Reach more people in more ways through enhanced dissemination and engagement pathways," and “Foster distinctiveness of the NLM as a reliable, trusted source of health information and biomedical data," as well as Objective 2.2, “Enhance information delivery."

2. Objective The purpose of the medical herb and supplement information requirement is to address NLM’s need to license herbal and dietary supplement information for MedlinePlus because it is not freely available in English and Spanish. NLM requires unique authoritative herbal and dietary supplement information for inclusion in the MedlinePlus Web sites (http://medlineplus.gov), which includes information in both English and Spanish. NLM will host the content on its own servers. Content will be displayed in MedlinePlus templates with attribution to the content provider. Links to the content may also be included in email updates and social media posts sent from NLM to interested users.

3. Tasks: Specific Technical Requirements

· The vendor shall perform the following:

a. Customize Files to be integrated into the MedlinePlus environment. The content shall be delivered electronically in well-formed XML. NLM will use the XML to:

i. index content for its search engine

ii. produce a printer-friendly version of the individual content pages. The content provider does not need to provide this formatting. NLM will create this formatting

iii. provide users with the ability to email the individual content pages to other users. The content provider shall not provide the service. NLM will implement this with a custom solution

b. NLM will implement links to email and social media from the individual content pages to allow MedlinePlus users to easily share content of interest within their social networks.

c. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) requirements for Herbs and Supplements pages to ensure retrieval from search engines. Vendor needs to supply an individual, relevant meta description for each page of content. The meta descriptions will be used by search engines and on social media page shares to describe the page and attract visitors.

· The vendor shall provide meta-description:

a. In English and translated into Spanish.

b. Long enough to be sufficiently descriptive. It should be no less than 135 characters, and no more than 200 characters.

c. Directly relevant to the page it describes. Matching the page content is critical: the meta description should emulate what the page is about.

d. Each meta description needs to be customized to the relevant page of content. The same text cannot be used as “boilerplate” meta description across several pages.

e. A readable, compelling description using important keywords. Do not simply cut and paste the meta description with redundant keywords.

· Vendor shall support NLM’s need to distinguish meta description, title and H1 for each page of content.

4. Mandatory Requirements

a. Authoritative content: The content shall be accurate and authoritative. Content should be based on peer-reviewed evidence and contain references to the evidence.

b. Content coverage: The content must have at least 100 monographs covering a complete range of issues relating to diseases, conditions and wellness that are of interest for general health consumers. NLM must be allowed to select monographs from the available pool.

c. Content should provide graded scales of effectiveness for remedies.

d. Equivalent content in English and Spanish: The content of the monographs must be completely equivalent in English and Spanish. The content must be structured in such a way that NLM can map from information in one language to the other

e. Audience: The content must be written for the general layperson. The content must be consumer-friendly and written at a consumer reading level.

f. Regular updating of content: Content must be current and reviewed and updated at least yearly. Content updates must be accompanied by detailed documentation of the changes that have been made to the content. Documentation must include a list of information that has been added, edited, or deleted.

g. Emergency updating of content: There must be a provision for updating and/or replacing inaccurate or outdated content that would cause harm to health outside the regular update schedule. The vendor must describe their procedure and turn-around time for emergency content updates in English and Spanish within 2 business days.

h. Update content to align with HHS standards in response to Executive Orders, etc.

i. User feedback: Respond to user feedback provided by NLM monthly.

j. No commercial content: Information must be free of commercial endorsements or advertisements.

k. Unobtrusive co-branding: Branding by the content provider must be minimal and unobtrusive.

l. No registration: Users must be able to access all content licensed by NLM without having to register with the content provider.

m. Format of content data: Content must be delivered to NLM in a desired format, such as well-formed XML with accompanying DTD or schema. NLM seeks text-based, descriptive information about supplements.

n. Detailed meta descriptions: See #3. Tasks: Specific Technical Requirements

o. Accessibility of content: Content must be accessible in accordance with Section 508 (29 U.S.C. 794d). It is the responsibility of the content provider to familiarize themselves with Section 508 requirements and ensure that their content meets these requirements. (See Section 10)

5. Section 508 Requirements (mandatory)

10.1 Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires that Federal agencies' electronic and information technology is accessible to people with disabilities. The drugs database monographs, and any other content offered shall be Section 508 compliant.

10.2 The vendor shall review and attest that they can or cannot comply (providing detailed explanations) with the requirements in the ICT Accessibility Requirements Statement per the Revised Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act located in the Federal Register available at: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2021/08/11/2021-16363/federal-acquisition-regulation-section-508-based-standards-in-information-and-communication

6. Other Required Information

a. Provide a sample monograph in English and Spanish in the appropriate format. For example, provide a sample of the XML with accompanying schema.

b. Provide a list of (preferably three) similar organizations that license the content, along with accompanying Web site URLs, for NLM to review.

c. The Vendor shall provide NLM with the data (at no cost) or a sample set of the data and a complete list of available units (at no cost) within a week after the award is made for our internal planning purposes. It would be a benefit to the government if the Vendor is willing to provide the data while we are negotiating the license agreement. The Vendor will be available for questions regarding the data and implementation on MedlinePlus and MedlinePlus en Español during the time period before the base year starts. This will facilitate our programming and testing time before we make the content available on the site. Once the base year officially starts, which is when the data will be publicly available on the site, we will pay for the base year as planned.

d. Features and product offerings will be evaluated as they exist at the time of proposal submission. Beta releases and planned updates will not be considered.

e. If NLM ceases licensing this product, the Offeror will be notified within 30 calendar days of the change but will help assist with the transition by providing technical support and addressing questions that facilitate transitioning to a new provider of content. The contractor shall create any requested non-proprietary documentation that NLM requests to aid with the transition. Any documentation developed for this purpose shall be the property of the government.

7. Place of Performance Vendor will complete work at Vendor’s site.

8. Period of Performance It is anticipated that the period of performance will be for one year plus three additional 12-month option periods.

· Base Year: 07/30/2025 – 07/29/2026

· Option Year 1: 07/30/2026 – 07/29/2027

· Option Year 2: 07/30/2027 – 07/29/2028

· Option Year 3: 07/30/2028 - 07/29/2029

9. Deliverables/Delivery Schedule

The awardee will be required to provide NLM with technical support and advanced delivery of the content files within 1 week of being selected by NLM so that NLM can plan for the implementation of the content pages and link to these pages on MedlinePlus-branded sites, services and files.

10. Inspection and Acceptance Criteria NLM will inspect and do a quality review of the delivered content as part of the regular update process.

11. Transition Plan

a. The awardee will be required to provide NLM with technical support and advanced delivery of the content files within 14 days of being selected by NLM so that NLM can plan for the implementation of the content pages and links to these pages on MedlinePlus-branded sites, services, and files.