6515--MRI/PET Molecular and Anatomic Imaging System To correct NAICS and PSC code

Summary: This is a Sources Sought notice and not a request for quotes. This request is solely for the purpose of conducting market research to enhance VHA s understanding of the market s offered products, services and capabilities. The Government will not pay any costs for responses submitted in response to this Sources Sought.Â

This Sources Sought notice provides an opportunity for respondents to submit their notice of ability, and their available products and services in response to the requirement described below. Vendors are being invited to submit information relative to their potential of fulfilling the requirement below, in the form of a capability response that addresses the specific requirement identified in this Sources Sought. Â

 The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is seeking a vendor to provide the following products and/or services below. Please see the Statement of Work section below for the requested products/services and descriptions. This Sources Sought is to facilitate the Contracting Officer s review of the market base, for acquisition planning, size determination, and procurement strategy.Â

The Department of Veterans Affairs, Columbia VA Medical Center, is in need of a combined 9.4 Tesla MRI/PET Molecular and Anatomic Imaging System. This acquisition of preclinical MRI/PET technology is to support traumatic brain injury (TBI) research projects on studying the long-term effects of mild TBI using preclinical models.

STATEMENT OF WORK

Combined 9.4 Tesla MRI/PET Molecular and Anatomic Imaging Technologies

The VA Columbia Missouri health care location Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans' Hospital is requesting the acquisition of preclinical MRI/PET technology to support traumatic brain injury (TBI) research projects. This technology acquisition will complement and expand the existing Molecular Imaging Technology currently housed within the VA Biomolecular Imaging Center (BIC).

This technology must be capable of performing simultaneous hi-resolution Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) in preclinical rodent models (mouse/rat) of TBI. The requirements are specified as follows:

General Requirements

The MRI system will possess a desired field strength of 9.4 Tesla and be specifically designed for mice, rats and large animals molecular imaging studies, in-vivo and/or ex-vivo applications. Due to the site location for this instrument, the MRI system must be self-shielded and cryogen free. The MRI component of the combined MRI/PET system will include the necessary software to access all functions of the system including source code and pulse sequence programming.

MAGNET

The 9.4 Tesla magnet will have the following specifications:

Cryogen free superconducting magnet

- Minimum 250 mm clear bore

- Minimum FOV of 150 mm x 90 mm FOV

- Include Integral R.F. shield and associated cryo-cooling compressor

- Magnet power supply and control unit

- Stray field center to : 140cm radially x 170cm axially (from magnet center)

- Magnet stability: /= 64 GB) and hard drive capacities (Minimum 2TB), including a minimum of 512GB NVMe, to support robust data acquisition, processing, and transfer capabilities for large data sets.

The supplied instrument workstations will be equipped with Intel® UHD Graphics 630 processors or equivalent.

Quality Control Phantoms

The vendor shall include necessary quality control phantoms to permit:

the ongoing assessment and verification of system image resolution and image uniformity using appropriate Jaszczak Phantoms (0.7-1.5mm rod diameter) and Uniformity Phantoms (30-60mm Diameter).

the ongoing assessment and quality control of recovery coefficient, noise assessment determined as the background coefficient of variation, and image quality/lesion detectability employing an appropriate small animal NEMA IQ Phantom.

Motorized Animal Pallets and Individual Animal Beds

The system will include a Motorized Table for horizontal movement of animals into and out of the PET/MR system. The Motorized Table will be compatible with simultaneous or sequential multimodality imaging and be capable of supporting the required bed configurations:

-Mouse Bed for brain imaging compatible with mouse head coils and whole body coils including accommodations for anesthetic gas supply, warm air circulation, physiological monitoring, and cardiac/respiratory gating.

-Mouse Bed for whole body imaging (REQUIRE 2) compatible with mouse whole body coils including accommodations for anesthetic gas supply, warm air circulation, physiological monitoring, and cardiac/respiratory gating.

-Multiple Mouse Bed capable of imaging up to 3 mice simultaneously including accommodations for supply of 3 separate anesthetic gas supply lines for the concurrent immobilization of 3 mice.

-Rat Bed for Brain Imaging (Require 2) with an appropriate adaptation for the animal head and designed for head coils. These beds will accommodate anesthetic gas supply, warm air circulation, physiological monitoring, and cardiac/respiratory gating.

-Rat Bed for Whole Body Imaging: (Require 2) designed for use with the compatible whole body RF coils. These beds will accommodate anesthetic gas supply, warm air circulation, physiological monitoring, and cardiac/respiratory gating.

-Large Animal Imaging Bed for Large-Bore MR. This bed will be capable of supporting a maximum weight 2.5 kg. This bed will accommodate anesthetic gas supply, warm air circulation, physiological monitoring, and cardiac/respiratory gating.

Physiological Monitoring/Body Temperature Control/Anesthesia

The system will include hardware and software to provide the following capabilities:

MRI compatible Cardiac and Respiratory Gating/Monitoring for physiological monitoring and gating (cardiac/respiratory) for anesthetized mice, rats and larger animals.

An independent external Power Supply to support the operation of the Cardiac and Respiratory Gating/Monitoring system.

A system to provide body temperature control and support for up to 3 animals simultaneously that is compatible with all system animal beds.

A portable O2/Air veterinary anesthesia system (on a cart) for animals