AN11--Eye Movement Ophthalmology Research Support Pre-solicitation Notice with Intent to Sole Source

Pre-Solicitation Notice for notice of intent to award a sole source contract. This is not a solicitation. The Department of Veterans Affairs intends to negotiate a sole source contract for one (1) year to the Cleveland Clinic Foundation located at 9500 Euclid Ave, NA4

Cleveland, OH 44195 for research to establish treatment options for vergence impairments and strabismus in PD patients with subthalamic nucleus region (STN) deep brain stimulation (DBS) for the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center. This acquisition requires refining the study design and hypotheses from a specialized ophthalmological and strabismology perspective to ensure robust binocular control data.

This interdisciplinary research holds transformative potential as it seamlessly combines neurology, visual neuroscience, and computational modeling. It has the capacity to yield impactful treatments for visual abnormalities in PD while safeguarding the positive effects on motor symptoms, ultimately enhancing the overall well-being of affected individuals. The research activities associated with this project takes place at the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, and the Cleveland Clinic, and it involves co-investigators and research staff at each of those institutions. This project is important to the field of neurorehabilitation because it recognizes the potential of combining synergistic therapies to achieve greater benefits for patients and Veterans with Parkinson s Disease. The services required for this project demand a uniquely integrated ophthalmological and euroscientific skillset that is not available from any other source. The work hinges on advanced, highly specialized ophthalmological capabilities including clinical strabismus assessment, characterization of binocular control, subject selection based on ocular alignment phenotypes, evaluation of strabismus related visuomotor behavior, and development of ophthalmology driven signal processing methods expertise that is novel within DBS research and not found in standard neurology or neuroscience laboratories.

The inability to use the unique services that only the Cole VNL laboratory at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation can provide would be detrimental in terms of cost and ability to meet the project s ophthalmological, mechanistic, and analytic research requirements. Cleveland Clinic Foundation is the primary academic affiliate of the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center. 38 U.S.C. 8153 allows for sole source awards related to research with VA academic affiliates.

Since the intent is to procure this on a sole source basis, no solicitation will be posted to Contract Opportunities on SAM.gov. The applicable NAICS code is 541690 with a $19 MIL size standard. The PSC is AN11. The authority for this action is RFO 6.103.5 Authorized or Required by Statute. Interested persons may contact the Contracting Officer via email at annmarie.stewart@va.gov regarding this procurement. The determination to conduct a competitive procurement based on responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Contracting Officer.