R702--VHA VISN 10 Pharmacy, Drug Shortages API Feed

THE PURPOSE OF THIS SOLICIATION AMENDMENT IS TO PROVIDE ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS FROM INDUSTRY, PROVIDE A TRANSCRIPTION OF THE VIRTUAL SITE VISIT, AND PROVIDE THE SLIDE DECK USED DURING THE VIRTUAL SITE VISIT.

Questions and Answers: (Answers are in RED text.)

We would like to know if this is a brand new contract OR if there is (was) an incumbent performing these services.

If not brand new, could you please provide the current / previous contract number?

This is a new contract.

Item 1:

The vendor will provide updated and current drug shortage information affecting the United States prescription drug market. Information provided must be provided from a nationally recognized source, monitored, and updated regularly by following up with drug manufacturers. Drugs on shortage or backorder must include National Drug Code (NDC) with the date of shortage. As shortages are resolved, the NDC and resolution date must also be identified and updated.

Item 1 Questions:

A nationally recognized source is specified in the requirements for updated and current drug information, but it looks as if it is the VA is also requesting monitoring and updating by contacting the drug manufacturers.

Can you elaborate on your expectations in regards to following up with manufacturers since the utilization of a nationally recognized source approved by the VA is suppose to be providing the most current information already? Drug manufacturers can often give a reason for the specific drug shortage and a expected resolution date. The expectation is that the data provided in the API feed would include this data if it is available (sometimes the mfg of the drug do not have concrete data here but expectation is that this would be included)

Are there other expectations in monitoring other than up-time of the nationally recognized source? In this context, we would expect the shortage data provided in the API to be accurate vs what is presented in accredited sources for drug shortages (like ASHP, FDA, CDC, etc).

Item 3:

VISN 10 sites will be notified at least once daily when any new, updated or resolved medication shortages information is identified via the API feed.

Item 3 Question:

How many locations will directly connect to the API and how often? Physical locations could machines located in Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan. All machines and technology would reside on the VA network. API calls would not exceed 10 per day (one to PowerBI data Flow, one to ETL into a relational database in our corporate data warehouse, etc). Â

Will individual pharmacy Power BI servers connect or will one one central Power BI server connect and distribute the data. It would be a data flow located on a PowerBI enterprise server for VA. This data flow would serve as a datasource for all our VISN sites to leverage for report/dashboard development.

Due to some providers considering their drug shortage databases copy-written material. For the purpose of licensing how many pharmacies/location be using this data. The data would be inserted into central reports/tools that 11 VA hospitals/pharmacies would leverage.

Item 7:

The API feed will be a one directional. No information will be sent to the Vendor from the VA. The vendor will not have access to VA drug file, usage, pricing, or patient information. The current Electronic Health Record (EHR) that VISN 10 is using is VISTA/CPRS and Oracle Cerner and the API feed will not have access any of those systems.

Item 7 Questions:

When mentioning the feed is one directional does that include the ability to send POST variables for authentication purposes like OAuth2 which require we use other methods of securing the feed from unauthorized access? This would not be included. Ideally the API feed would be a secure URL with an authorization key in the URL (less resistance to compatibility on the VA network) but this statement is there to note we will not be sending this drug data back to vendors or other organizations outside the va firewall.

Item 8:

The Vendor must make the API feed available for daily updates when drug shortages are updated, if the vendor cannot provide this it will be a failure to perform and will result in a contract discrepancy report being issued.Â

Item 8 Question:

In the event of a service interruption at our data center that is out of our control, would this be considered a failure to perform, and should we consider including fail-over architecture to insure a contract discrepancy report is not created? Fail over would be ideal in this situation, but we understand events like this happen. One-off technology disruptions on account of data center failures are ok, repeated data center failures within a week would not be ok. The essence of item is to ensure the data is updated as close to real time vs other validated sources of drug shortages like FDA, ASHP, CDC. Shortages that remain on the API data feed and are not on the corresponding validated sources list or shortages are not reported when reported ion the validated sources list would be the focal point of this item.