Introduction:

This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice (SBSS). This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small business; HUBZone small businesses; service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran-owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice.

Project Description and Requirements

1. Project Description and Requirements:

The Agency for Healthcare and Research Quality’s (AHRQ’s) Patient-Centered Outcomes Research (PCOR) Clinical Decision Support (CDS) program has a legislative mandate from the Affordable Care Act to disseminate and implement PCOR findings into clinical practice through CDS and to work with stakeholders in the process to make sure this information is understood and used. Since 2016, the CDS program has funded an array of activities ranging from learning collaboratives to demonstration and dissemination research grants, pilot projects, evaluations, and infrastructure for developing and sharing interoperable CDS resources. The primary public gateway to the project portfolio and its related infrastructure is https://cds.ahrq.gov, which includes access to information, tools (e.g., a CDS Authoring Tool), services (e.g., application programming interfaces), and ‘Contact Us’ forms for getting in touch with AHRQ program staff.

Under this task order, the contractor shall provide research dissemination and information technology (IT) infrastructure support to AHRQ’s PCOR CDS program.

Specifically, the contractor shall:

1. Provide project management, including maintaining the project work plan, conducting project meetings, and preparing monthly reports.
2. Manage, update, and maintain AHRQ’s CDS program’s primary website, https://cds.ahrq.gov and its subpages. For the purposes of this task order, the “program website” refers to https://cds.ahrq.gov, https://cds.ahrq.gov/overview, https://cds.ahrq.gov/evaluation, https://cds.ahrq.gov/funding-opportunities, https://cds.ahrq.gov/resources, https://cds.ahrq.gov/contact-us, https://cds.ahrq.gov/cedar, https://cds.ahrq.gov/cdsconnect, https://cds.ahrq.gov/cdsconnect/authoring, their sub-pages (e.g., https://cds.ahrq.gov/cdsconnect/about), and any new pages developed under this task order (e.g., pages describing grants and contracts per tasks below).

The contractor is not responsible for content or maintenance of https://cds.ahrq.gov/cdsic (http://cdsic.ahrq.gov) or its sub-pages except as needed to ensure a seamless user experience across the program website (which includes having at least a tab or link(s) to the CDSiC subsite) and to coordinate with other contractors to ensure that the program website meets all AHRQ IT requirements as described below (e.g., compliance with AHRQ IT Enclave Tenant handbook).

Specific tasks include:

• Optimizing search engine functionality
• Updating pages (presentation, layout, graphics, images etc.) and content to improve user experience
• Producing new content and launching new pages describing Patient Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund funding grants and contracts including news, events, and funding opportunities
• Complying with AHRQ’s Enclave Tenant Handbook
• Creating a systems document describing all the software applications and architecture of AHRQ’s CDS program website
• Creating a Service Level Agreement for AHRQ’s CDS program website
• Coordinate among other operators of other subpages, such as the CDS Innovation Collaborative, to ensure stable technical connections from AHRQ’s CDS program website to these other operator managed pages.

3. Track and synthesize CDS activities to support dissemination tasks for the AHRQ CDS program in the form of preparing new and updated website content, newsletters, digests, and other material as appropriate.

4. Maintain the AHRQ’s CDS program’s lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) and user management application (UMA) and ensure it continues to meet user needs and complies with all AHRQ IT requirements.

5. Migrate the cds.ahrq.gov domain and components of the program website that are in Acquia into the AHRQ Enclave.

• Develop a complete migration project plan that describes the overall approach, goals, necessary steps and requirements, timeframes, and testing required.

6. Implement and maintain, for CDS Connect accounts, a phishing resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA) for system administrators, other privileged accounts, and be offered to public users.

7. Serve as operator of CDS Connect which includes:

• Maintaining CDS Connect’s infrastructure, tools, and operations (https://github.com/AHRQ-CDS) to continue to meet stakeholder needs (https://cds.ahrq.gov/cdsconnect)
• Document operational information about CDS Connect’s underlying technical infrastructure, design, and operations through a CDS Connect Systems document
• Document the provisioning of technical assistance to users of the CDS Connect Repository, Authoring Tool, and Open Source Tools through a CDS Connect Service Level Agreement
• Maintain and update (as needed) the technical systems and components of CDS Connect’s Repository, Authoring Tool, and Open Source Tools
• Support contribution to the Repository by reviewing CDS artifacts that are candidates for the CDS Connect Repository
• Provide technical support to new and existing users of CDS Connect
• Manage users accounts

Anticipated Period of Performance

Base Year – 12 months

Option Year 1 – 12 months

Option Year 2 – 12 months

Option Year 3 – 12 months

Option Year 4 – 12 months

Capability Information Sought

Capabilities necessary to fulfill this requirement include:

• Program and project management
• Software systems engineering including content management software (e.g. Drupal, Acquia), open source platforms, cybersecurity, multifactor authentication, user management systems, Cloud hosting environments, Cloud computing, LDAP setup and maintenance, and system integration
• Website design and management
• Knowledge of health IT standards relevant to clinical decision support (CDS) (FHIR, HL7, CQL, etc.), computable biomedical evidence, and APIs
• Knowledge of health IT systems that involve public contribution and consumption of computable biomedical knowledge such as CDS
• Clinical informatics and evidence-based medicine
• Communications and stakeholder engagement, including writing reports that are technical in nature but whose audience may be more general or non-technical
• Content creation for public facing web applications and optimizing user experiences
• Facilitating meetings among stakeholders such as patients, clinicians, guideline developers, health IT developers, informaticists, Federal agencies, and others

The capability statement response to this Small Business Sources Sought notice should include the following information:

• Staff expertise, including their availability, experience, and formal and other training;
• Current in-house capability and capacity to perform the work;
• Corporate experience and information on prior projects of similar size and complexity;
• List any Government wide contracting vehicle for which the respondent has a contract (example, GSA schedule, etc).

Information Submission Instructions

Interested qualified small business organizations should submit a tailored capability statement for this requirement.

The cover page must include the following:

• UEI number
• Organization name
• Organization address
• Size and type of business (e.g., 8(a), HUBZone, etc.) pursuant to NAICS code 541512.
• Technical point(s) of contact, including names, titles, addresses, telephone, and e-mail addresses.

All Capability Statements sent in response to this SMALL BUSINESS SOURCES SOUGHT notice must be submitted electronically (via e-mail) to Lana Denning, Contract Specialist, Lana.Denning@ahrq.hhs.gov in MS Word, or Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF), no later than 2:00 PM ET on May 23, 2024. Responses should not exceed 15 single-sided pages (including the cover page, all attachments, resumes, charts, etc.) presented in single-space and using a 12-point font size minimum, that clearly details the ability to perform the aspects of the notice described above.

Disclaimer and Important Notes

This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization’s qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in SAM.gov. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.

Confidentiality

No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).

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