6540--AO Retinal Camera

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.

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.

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is seeking a vendor to provide the following products and/or services below. Please see the General Requirements 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.

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS

AO Retinal Camera

Delivery Date: 120 days from date of award

Description & Salient Characteristics

This equipment will go towards enhancing research capabilities amongst various researchers within the Center for Prevention and Treatment of Visual Loss. The equipment is to provide ultra-high resolution in vivo imaging of retinal vessels and photoreceptors in Veterans with inner and outer retinal causes of vision loss in Veterans. The AO Retinal Camera and required accessories must meet salient characteristics listed below:

AO Retinal Camera

Must be able to examine the retina at a scale where single cells are clearly visible.

Must provide ultra-high-resolution images.

Must provide images entirely free from motion distortion.

Must enable detecting the progression of atrophic lesions over a timescale of weeks, instead of months with conventional imaging.

Must enable clinical researchers to investigate an array of candidate biomarkers for assessing retinal anatomy and pathologies at the cellular level.

The associated application/software must be able to supervise image segmentation enabling analyzing distribution of cell-like structures and wall morphology of blood vessels.

Imaging type: en face reflectance imaging

Detection mode: low-noise CCD camera

Illumination: Near infrared LED, 850nm

Exposure time: < 10ms

Imaging field of view: 4 degrees x 4 degrees

Optical resolution on the fundus: 250-line pairs per millimeter (lppmm)

Adaptive optics control: Fully automated, resistant to blinking and movement

Depth focusing range: 1600 m

Pupil diameter: 4mm

Refractive error compensation: -12 to +6 D

Must come with an application/suite compatible with the AO Retinal Camera

Must come with software compatible with the AO Retinal Camera

Must offer installation and on-site training

Must offer warranty, special shipping, technical support, and software upgrade

Software/Application

Must offer wall metrics such as: internal and external diameter, wall thickness, Wall Cross Section Area, and Wall to Lumen Ratio.

Must offer reproductivity such as: 0.7% for internal diameter and 3.3% for Wall to Lumen Ratio

Must offer manual correction to add/remove cells while monitoring the Voronoi segmentation

Must offer mosaic metrics such as: cell density, inter-cell spacing, regularity index, dispersion index

Must offer reproductivity of 4% for cell density

Must allow for color-code Voronoi diagrams: density, spacing, regularity

Required Individual Line Items & Quantity of Items

(1 each) Enter line-item description for each item requiring a breakdown in pricing: Below are the possible line items that will be required for pricing in the solicitation.

rtx1 AO Retinal Camera

Workstation for rtx1 AO Retinal Camera

AODetect Suite

I2k AO Software

Brief Description of Services

Installation and training on-site 2 days

Warranty extension on parts and labor (1 year)

Shipping: DAP to Iowa City

Warranty 1 year

Technical Support - 1 year

Software Upgrade 1 year

Response:

Capability statement and a list of the salient characteristics. Please provide your socioeconomic status, and size classification (large business, small business, SDVOSB, VOSB, etc.), and the approximate shipping time from the date of order.

All responses should be directed to annmarie.stewart@va.gov by September 19, 2022, 1 PM EST.

Submittals furnished will not be returned to the sender. No debriefs will be conducted. Eligibility in participating in a future acquisition does not depend upon a response to this notice.

Proprietary information is neither requested nor desired. If such information is submitted, it must clearly be marked "proprietary" on every sheet containing such information, and the proprietary information must be segregated to the maximum extent practicable from other portions of the response (e.g., use an attachment or exhibit).

This request will close on stated date within the Government Point of Entry (GPE).

Note:

1. This Sources Sought is for planning purposes only, and does not constitute a commitment, implied or otherwise, that a procurement action will follow. The Department of Veterans Affairs will use the information submitted in response to this notice at its discretion and will not provide comments to any submission; however, the Department of Veterans Affairs reserves the right to contact any respondent to this notice for the sole purpose of enhancing the Department of Veteran Affairs understanding of the notice submission.

2. The content of any responses to this notice may be reflected in any subsequent solicitation, except for content marked or designated as business confidential or proprietary which will be fully protected from release outside the government.

The Department of Veteran Affairs Contracting Office POC:

Ann Marie Stewart

Contracting Officer

annmarie.stewart@va.gov