J and A - VisualDX - Redacted.pdf

Request for Sole Source Justification

VHAPG Part 806.3 OFOC Page 2 of 4 Revision: 03 Effective Date: 04/15/24 Acquisition ID#: 36C776-25-AP-0430

4. Statutory Authority Permitting Other than Full and Open Competition:

(X) (1) Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements per 41 USC 3304(a)(1) as implemented by FAR 6.302-1

5. Demonstration that the Contractor’s Unique Qualifications or Nature of the

Acquisition Requires the Use of the Authority Cited Above (applicability of authority):

The VHA Dermatology Program Office has identified the VisualDX as the authoritative, up-to-date, and relevant resource to ensure that a diagnostic clinical decision support product is made available to staff for patient care.

These products may also be referred to as a bedside information tool because they have been designed to provide information at the patient’s bedside or point of care.

They tend to provide information that will directly affect patient care. What distinguishes these products from sources such as electronic textbooks or bibliographic citations databases is that it includes a mechanism to support and provide clinical dermatology decision support knowledge at the point-of-care.

VisualDx is the only diagnostic decision support system to assist in the differential diagnosis of over 3,000 diagnoses across medicine and is illustrated with over 47,000 professionally photographed medical images. No other diagnostic decision support system allows the clinician to enter patient findings in order to dynamically build a differential diagnosis displayed by medical images and Sympticons™ .

No other diagnostic decision support system or organized collection of medical images exists that vividly displays the variation of disease presentation through age, stage, and skin type. VisualDx addresses health disparities by providing robust information on the presentation and treatment of disease in dark skin.

VisualDx provides sustainable training in pattern recognition and clinical reasoning through daily use for common diagnostic problems. No other diagnostic decision support system includes a customizable alert and feedback mechanism that allows you to push local and disease-specific alerts, updates, and report information directly to the point-of-care.

VisualDx is the only solution that provides rapid access to information about bioterrorism, chemical warfare, radiation injury, avian flu, SARS (and other emerging diseases), while also providing specialist-level information for diagnosing and treating common, and variants of the common conditions, to help improve care.

VisualDX is one of the most frequently used and widely relied upon references in medicine. As such, there is no other guide on the marketplace that can satisfy the VA need without sacrificing diagnostic efficiency, accuracy and ultimately patient

Request for Sole Source Justification

VHAPG Part 806.3 OFOC Page 3 of 4 Revision: 03 Effective Date: 04/15/24 Acquisition ID#: 36C776-25-AP-0430 care. All of the tables have been updated to reflect newly approved drugs, new indications for existing drugs and updated dosage, side effects and pharmacologic data.

6. Description of Efforts Made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as deemed practicable:

In addition to contacting the publisher for resellers, a survey of the marketplace will be accomplished by posting a notice of intent to sole source after approval is granted.

7. Determination by the CO that the Anticipated Cost to the Government will be

Fair and Reasonable:

The proposed pricing will be evaluated against the Independent Government Cost Estimate and historical pricing using the previous contract (36C77624P0098) and comparable pricing for similar, web-based resources will be used to ensure the price has been deemed fair and reasonable.

8. Description of the Market Research Conducted and the Results, or a Statement of the Reasons Market Research Was Not Conducted:

As described in Section 6 above, market research, in accordance with FAR Part 10, will be conducted by synopsis of the proposed acquisition, advising industry of the pending acquisition and soliciting inquiries from interested parties. Further, a VetCert query was completed using NAICS 519290. None of the vendors generated from the list were contacted due to the understanding that there are no authorized resellers.

9. Any Other Facts Supporting the Use of Other than Full and Open Competition:

None.

10. Listing of Sources that Expressed, in Writing, an Interest in the Acquisition:

No other entities have expressed in writing, or otherwise, an interest in providing a comparable resource to the VA Library Network Office.

11. A Statement of the Actions, if any, the Agency May Take to Remove or

Overcome any Barriers to Competition before Making subsequent acquisitions for the supplies or services required:

In order to remove or overcome barriers to competition in future acquisitions for this requirement, the agency will work with the program office to perform additional market research in a timely manner to see if other solutions are feasible and can be considered as a viable alternative.

12. Requirements Certification: I certify that the requirement outlined in this justification is a Bona Fide Need of the Department of Veterans Affairs and that the supporting data under my cognizance, which are included in the justification, are accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.