Request for Proposals
Solicitation No. AHRQ-00-0009 (Full and Open Competition, with recommended
small business goals)
Proposals Due: July 31, 2000
Contracting Office: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Division of
Contracts Management, 2101 East Jefferson Street, Suite 601, Rockville, MD
20852
The synopsis for this requirement was published in the Commerce Business
Daily on May 30, 2000. The solicitation issue date is June 14, 2000. Full
text can be downloaded from the AHRQ Web site. Select to access Downloading
Information. Printed copies are not available. If you have any trouble
downloading this solicitation, please contact Sharon Williams, Contracting
Officer, (301) 427-1781; or by E-mail: SWilliam@ahrq.gov.
It is anticipated that multiple award, task order contracts will be made
under this solicitation for a one-year period, with one option year.
Background and Purpose: The threat of bioterrorist attacks has
stimulated planning by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS
plans involve various elements of the public health and medical care systems in
preparing for and responding to weapons of mass destruction. The objectives of
this contract are:
- To describe and evaluate approaches to preparedness for bioterrorism that
are based upon information systems.
- To determine the best ways to train clinicians to diagnose and manage rare
events, specifically including infectious diseases that may have resulted from
the release of a biological weapon.
- To develop some model hospital plans (for institutions providing different
levels of care or with different numbers of beds, e.g., secondary, as compared
with tertiary care facilities) for managing massive numbers of casualties,
including cases that would require inpatient care.
- To develop alternative models that would allow local health providers and
institutions to use off-site, non-medical care facilities to provide care to
large numbers of people.
- To identify strategies that will help the medical care community forge
links with the local health department and, through the local health
department, with public health officials at the state and federal levels.
- To identify effective means of promoting the development of links between
the medical and public health communities and local emergency preparedness
planning bodies.
- To model capacity, costs, and impact of a bioterrorist event on hospitals
and integrated delivery systems.
The following are examples of topics that may result in a task order. These
are provided as examples only and are not necessarily indicative of actual
topics:
- Assessing what can be learned about Internet-based decision-support
systems in other fields in order to illuminate the development of
decision-support systems for clinical care in general and bioterrorism
response in particular.
- Delineating a model prototype for preparing a state to respond to a
bioterrorist threat or attack.
- Developing and evaluating clinical surveillance and detection systems to
detect emerging infectious diseases and other rare events, with particular
emphasis on the adaptation of existing clinical systems to detect possible
bioterrorism.
- Evaluating existing systems of surveillance and decision support (e.g.,
poison-control centers, CDC botulism surveillance, ProMed, and military
systems) to support detection and management of unusual clinical events.
- Supporting development of decision-support systems that could be used to
aid clinicians at the point of care with special emphasis on the requirements
of the system for reconfiguration to deal with bioterrorism.
- Determining the utility, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of training
simulations, including review of the experience in other industries.
- Reviewing and evaluating the effectiveness of current programs of training
and education about bioterrorism.
- Identifying the best approaches to reaching front-line clinicians with
appropriate training about bioterrorism.
- Modeling the capacity, costs, and impact of a bioterrorist event on
hospitals and integrated delivery systems.
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Current as of June 2000
Internet Citation:
Bioterrorism Initiative: Request for Proposals. June 2000.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.
http://www.ahrq.gov/fund/contarchive/rfp000009.htm
540 Gaither Road Rockville, MD 20850 