Notice of Intent to Sole Source: Integrated Health Standards & Interoperability Support Services (IHS&ISS) Introduction: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Program Contracting Activity Central (PCAC) intends to issue a sole source bridge contract to Book Zurman Inc. for Integrated Health Standards & Interoperability Support Services for 4 months. Justification: The contractor shall provide services to support Standards & Interoperability (S&I) for the Office of Health Informatics (OHI). The contractor shall primarily support Knowledge Based Systems (KBS) within the Clinical Informatics & Data Management Office (CIDMO) division but may support other S&I initiatives within OHI as determined and requested by the Government. The contractor shall collaborate between business owners, health standards architects, VA project teams, industry experts, and standards-related organizations to accomplish successful, open-source health standards-based solutions to meet VA s needs. The contractor shall engage in VA, Government, and industry efforts to advance data and knowledge sharing in support of a seamless Veteran care experience. Whether working collaborative with VA project teams, such as the EHR Modernization (EHRM) Program, or engaging in workgroups to advance standards such as HL7 Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), the contractor shall provide support to advance, consume, implement, and improve industry standards and their usage in support of Veteran care and wellness. The contractor shall advance the clinical decision support agenda and improvements in availability and accuracy of patient data, and support improvement in interoperability, clinical knowledge and workflow. The contractor shall provide support services in the following four (4) Technical Functional Areas: 1. Program and Project Management, and Knowledge Management 2. SDO, Industry, and Government Project Engagement 3. Interoperability Strategy and Architecture 4. VA Standards Advancement and Adoption Background: KBS works to ensure that health systems talk with one another by ensuring Veterans and staff have accurate, timely, and correct healthcare information at the point of care. KBS partners with other Federal agencies to enhance clinical terminology by supporting interoperability efforts for safe and efficient health care. KBS provides a standards-based foundation for patient-specific information and clinical knowledge to be computable, shareable, and accurate where and when needed to improve Veteran care. Standards & Interoperability covers a continuum of activities including the identification of VA requirements for health interoperability standards/profiles, to the development of standards/profiles with federal and private sector standards development organizations (SDO) and standards related organizations (SRO), development and sustenance of internal VA and external provider collaborative engagements required for supporting requisite Health Information Technology (HIT) architecture, systems operability and interoperability, the development of implementation models, prototypes, and implementation guidance and for providing a range of standards-related expertise to VA development teams as needed . Submittal Information: As stated above, this is an Intent to Sole Source. However, any responsible source who believes it is capable of meeting the requirement may submit a capability statement, proposal, or quotation, which shall be considered by the agency, only if received by the closing date and time of this notice. A determination not to compete the proposed requirement based upon the responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the government. Responses to this notice are due on or before April 16, 2021 at 11:59AM EST, to Lamonte Jones via email at
[email protected]. All responses must include the following information: Company name, Cage code, Dun & Bradstreet number, Company address, Point of contact name, Phone number, Fax number, GSA contract (if applicable) and email. The subject line for correspondence should clearly display: Integrated Health Standards & Interoperability Support Services (IHS&ISS) .