Joint Pathology Center (JPC) Digital Pathology Modernization

This special notice is closing out RFI #HT0050-20-RFI-0084. All responses were appreciated. The acquisition efforts in response to the RFI are multi-phased. The intent of the first phase is to issue an 8(a) direct award to T&T consulting to work towards a minimum viable product (MVP) as part of the modernization efforts. Future phases intend to engage industry in a competitive manner to address needs such as the Laboratory Information System (LIS), and more.

The Joint Pathology Center (JPC) is the premier pathology reference center for the federal government and part of the Defense Health Agency (DHA). As of 2011, the JPC tissue repository contains approximately 55 million glass slides, 31 million paraffin-embedded tissue blocks, and over 500,000 wet tissue samples that have been collected over the last 102 years - making it the largest collection of human pathology specimens in the word. The repository represents a priceless resource for clinicians, pathologists, and health care data analysts to better understand and diagnose rare diseases and cancers.

In addition to maintaining the largest tissue repository in the world, the JPC provides subspecialty secondary consultations for facilities across the Department of Defense (DoD) and Veterans Affairs Administration (VA). The JPC’s consultation practice includes a unique veterinary pathology consultative service. Lastly, the JPC enables pathologist-driven research in support of DoD and other federal government priorities and provides graduate medical education rotations and other support to federal government residencies/fellowships.

At the present time and in accordance with the National Defense Authorization Act of 2008, the JPC is pursuing a complete digital pathology modernization effort. This effort has several components, including scanning the majority of our tissue repository. The wealth of information housed in the JPC’s repository holds significant potential for personalized medicine, particularly for machine learning algorithms and molecular findings that help establish the diagnosis, prognosis and personalized therapies for patients.  The Defense Digital Service (DDS) and the JPC are seeking a vendor(s) with the capabilities of digitizing the JPC’s repository in order to preserve this invaluable source of medical data, enhance biomedical research for infectious diseases and cancer, and enable easier data sharing with researchers, diagnosticians, and educators to facilitate collaboration and medical advances.