JA - Laurel Bridge Redacted.pdf

Laurel Bridge Digital Imaging and Control Number: VA-25-00002192 Communication in Medicine Software Licenses and Maintenance providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized.”

5. Rationale Supporting Use of Authority Cited Above: Based on the market research, as described in Section 8 of this justification, it has been determined that limited competition is available among resellers of the required annual maintenance for the existing VA owned Laurel Bridge DICOM DCF local server runtime licenses and for the optional additional perpetual licenses on the NASA SEWP V GWAC. VA utilizes Laurel Bridge DCF software to develop VistA Imaging applications for all VHA facilities. VA anticipates the need to utilize the subject local server runtime licenses for at least the next three years. The required annual maintenance for DCF local server run-time licenses permits the Government to run VistA Imaging applications containing Laurel Bridge DCF code, which is critical to ensure the applications are operational and accessible with minimal interruption for patient care services.

To maintain the existing Laurel Bridge DCF software, a source must have access to its proprietary source code to provide the required support, configuration, and software updates. No other source has the capability of developing and issuing software updates for the Laurel Bridge software due to the proprietary nature of the source code. In addition, any other source would need access to this code to ensure all services provided are properly configured. Therefore, only Laurel Bridge, or its resellers, can provide the required maintenance support services for the currently fielded software and therefore, the annual maintenance of the Laurel Bridge DCF local server runtime licenses.

Replacement of the existing VistA Imaging code using the Laurel Bridge proprietary DCF source code is currently estimated to cost approximately $4.55M for the first year and take a minimum of 12 months to complete, after which maintenance of the alternative software would need to be procured. This estimate is based on previous acquisition history, and it is not expected these duplicative costs would be recovered through competition.

Failure to procure the required annual maintenance of the existing Government owned Laurel Bridge Local Server-Runtime-DCF licenses would result in VA’s inability to evoke existing VistA Imaging applications to acquire, store and provide DICOM medical images at and between the 146 VHA VistA image sites and the Department of Defense medical care system will cause delays of diagnostic health care services, resulting in the inability for patients to coordinate and/or complete needed health care services including procedures, surgeries, or updates to medications.

6. Efforts to Obtain Competition: Market research was conducted, details of which are in Section 8 of this justification. This effort did not yield any additional sources that can meet the Government’s requirements. However, the undersigned VA technical representative determined that limited competition is available among Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) resellers of the required brand name Laurel Bridge software maintenance on the NASA SEWP V GWAC. In accordance with FAR 16.505(a)(4)(iii)(A)(1), this justification will be provided with the solicitation to all appropriate NASA SEWP V GWAC holders. Furthermore, in accordance with FAR

Licenses and Maintenance

5.301, 16.505(b)(2)(ii)(D), and 16.505(a)(4)(iii), the award notice for this action will be synopsized on the Contracting Opportunities website and this justification will be made public within 14 days of award.

7. Actions to Increase Competition: The Government will continue to conduct market research to ascertain if there are changes in the marketplace that would enable future actions to be competed.

8. Market Research: The Government’s technical experts conducted market research in May 2024 by reviewing maintenance support services available from other similar vendors as well as resellers of Laurel Bridge software. Specifically, the Government’s technical experts conducted a web-based review of products/ services available from Merge, OFFIS and DCM4CHE. Based on this review, it was determined that no other source could provide licenses and maintenance support for Laurel Bridge software other than Laurel Bridge or one of its resellers because they lacked access to the proprietary source code necessary to provide the required support, configuration, and software updates. Only Laurel Bridge or its resellers can access the proprietary source code to maintain the current fielded Laurel Bridge licenses. As described in Section 5 above, use of any other brand of software is not tenable due to the embedded code in the current infrastructure that is currently used at VA sites.

The Government’s technical experts also conducted market research in May 2024 by reviewing published DICOM code libraries to determine if applications developed by other vendors utilizing the Laurel Bridge DCF SDK could be evoked either without using a Laurel Bridge DCF-Local Server-Runtime-DCF license or using an alternate manufacturer’s (Medical Connections, Ltd, MicroDicom, LeadTools, etc.) run-time licenses. The results of this review were that no other available DICOM code can run DICOM applications coded with the Laurel Bridge DCF-SDK. Only Laurel Bridge or its authorized resellers can provide the annual maintenance requirements for the usage of the fielded Laurel Bridge DCF-Local Server-Runtime-DCF licenses. In addition, the Government confirmed via market research in May 2024 that at least two SDVOSBs on the NASA SEWP V GWAC are resellers of Laurel Bridge software maintenance and licenses, therefore, the action will be set-aside for all SDVOSBs on the NASA SEWP V GWAC.

9. Other Facts: None

Licenses and Maintenance

Approval

In my role as procuring activity Advocate for Competition, based on the foregoing justification, I hereby approve the acquisition of Laurel Bridge DICOM DCF Local Server run time software maintenance subscriptions and licenses on an other than fair opportunity basis pursuant to the authority cited in Section 4 above, subject to availability of funds, and provided that the property and services herein described have otherwise been authorized for acquisition.

Date Advocate for Competition Technology Acquisition Center Office of Procurement, Acquisition, and Logistics Department of Veterans Affairs