HI 15-62 Terminology Standards

INTRODUCTION

The Veterans Health Administration (VHA), Program Contracting Activity Central (PCAC) anticipates soliciting proposals and subsequently awarding a Single Award, Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP), Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract for non-personal services to support Terminology Standards for the VHA, Office of Informatics and Analytics (OIA). Please note this is being issued in connection with Request for Information (RFI) VA701-15-N-0066.

BACKGROUND

The VHA, OIA, Health Informatics (HI), Knowledge Based Systems (KBS) provides subject matter expertise, policy guidance, and strategic recommendations regarding health standards implementation for VA's Information Technology (IT) systems.

KBS provides expertise for the terminology lifecycle. Their efforts contribute towards establishing a common framework for functional and semantic interoperability by representing and implementing VA requirements for achieving intelligent, reusable health information. KBS subject matter experts engage in VA project teams, such as the next generation electronic health records; VA DOD data sharing to validate technical specifications; and business requirements to ensure that VA's needs are met and terminology standards are properly implemented. The KBS team works with business owners to establish well-defined requirements, select appropriate standards, and constrain them accordingly to meet VA clinical use cases. The KBS team also makes recommendations to external VA offices and teams on how to integrate terminology standards and models into current and planned activities.

SCOPE OF WORK

The contractor shall primarily support the Terminology Division within KBS but may also support other KBS initiatives within OIA. The contractor shall conduct, coordinate, and collaborate on terminology standards activities within and beyond VA including: knowledge management, creating, organizing, integrating, maintaining, and harmonizing perpetually licensed or open-source healthcare terminologies. The purpose is to enable computational capability and to contribute to a framework that provides cognitive and decision support for Veteran's health, research, quality improvement, public health, and long-range planning activities (see ATTACHMENT 1).

ADMINISTRATIVE

The solicitation will be issued as a Request for Proposal (RFP) conducted in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Parts 12, 15, and 16. The solicitation will be advertised as a total Small Business set-aside. The applicable NAICS code is 541690 with a size standard of $15.0 million. The solicitation will be issued on or about July 22, 2015 for approximately 21-30 calendar days. The anticipated contract period will include a 12 month base period, with four (4) 12 month option periods to follow. Offerors will be required to submit their offers electronically via the eCMS VENDOR PORTAL. A guide is attached in order to assist potential Offerors with registering and becoming familiar with the eCMS VENDOR PORTAL (see ATTACHMENT 2).

DISCLAIMER

*This notice is not a request for competitive offers. Questions of a technical nature will not be answered as part of this notice; however, all general questions may be submitted in writing to the issuing office via the point of contact identified below. Telephone calls will not be accepted. The VA reserves the right to use only Federal Business Opportunities (FBO), via the internet, to provide notification of any amendments to this notice and the subsequent issuance of the solicitation. It is the contractor's responsibility to view FBO daily for any amendments to this notice and the subsequent issuance of the solicitation.

**The Performance Work Statement (PWS) has been attached to this notice to afford potential Offerors an opportunity to become familiar with it prior to solicitation issuance. The PWS may change prior to any official solicitation release; therefore, all potential Offerors are advised to carefully review all documents prior to submitting a proposal.

ATTACHMENTS