This is a SOURCES SOUGHT ANNOUNCEMENT ONLY The intent of this Sources Sought Announcement is to assist in our decision making process for services procurement. This is not a solicitation, nor request for quotes or proposals. Through the receipt of responses, this will enable a more precise type of procurement process . The Government is not obligated to nor will it pay for or reimburse any costs associated with responding to this sources sought synopsis request. This notice shall not be construed as a commitment by the Government to issue a solicitation or ultimately award of a contract, nor does it restrict the Government to a particular acquisition approach. Any inquiries are to be made in writing by email to the point of contact, Larry Facio, Contract Specialist. Responses to this notice shall be sent by email to
[email protected] by the due date and time of 08/03/2018 by 4:00 p.m. (Pacific Time). Description of requirement and submittal requirements are as follows: Description: Government seeks contractor to provide onsite Health Economics Technical Consultant Services for the VA Palo Alto Health Care System Menlo Park. Background: For patients who receive coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery, the traditional surgical approach uses cardiopulmonary bypass and cardioplegic arrest to construct the bypass grafts in a bloodless field. An alternative approach emerged in the late 1990s, in which the surgeon operates on a beating heart without the use of cardiopulmonary bypass (off-pump). Off-pump CABG grew in popularity from 1997-2003, at which point it was used in approximately 23% of isolated primary CABG operations. The Randomized On/Off Bypass (ROOBY; CSP 517) trial published in late 2009 found worse 1-year composite adverse event rate for off-pump (9.9%) compared to on-pump (7.4%, p=0.04). The ROOBY team has since published 5 year follow-up study, and papers on the economics and subgroup effects are currently under review. Specific aims: The analyses will address two important, unanswered questions. First, there is ongoing debate is whether the patients in ROOBY were generalizable to other CABG patients. Second, is the question of impact and whether surgeons have modified their surgical approaches since the publication of the ROOBY papers. To address the question of generalizability, we will compare ROOBY participants to non-ROOBY participants extending methods that we created. We will update the method to take advantage of newly available VA Surgical Quality Improvement Program (VASQIP) data. This comparison allows one to make probability weights, such that participants who are more like non-participants get higher weight and participants who are less typical get smaller weights. We can then use these weights to re-run the 1 and 5-year main findings to determine whether weighted analysis changes the interpretation of the results and if so, why. To address the second question of impact, we will compare CABG cases after 2009 using a landmark events analysis. The analysis tracks major publications related to ROOBY and related studies, including a Cochrane review and three large, multi-site trials. We will track how on and off-pump procedures changed over time, with the expectation that off-pump cases decreased after publication. This analysis will also use the VA Surgical Quality Improvement Program (VASQIP) data. Response Method: The Government requests capability statements and comments from interested businesses regarding the requirements described above. Responsible sources are encouraged to submit a response to this notice with a statement of interest on company letterhead. At a minimum, the following information shall be provided: 1. Company Name; 2. Company Mailing Address; 3. Point(s) of Contact including telephone number(s) & email address(es); 4. Socio-Economic (i.e. Small/Large Business, HUBZone, Service Disabled Veteran Owned, 8(a), etc.) as it relates to NAICS Code 926110. 5. Provide a summary of the type of services performed and experience as it relates to Economics and analysis related to medical procedures and treatments. 6. DUNS Number 7. Additional information and/or comments. Veterans First Contracting Program and the VA Rule of Two (Kingdomware v. United States) 38 U.S.C. 8127 - 8128: Service-disabled veteran owned small business (SDVOSB) or Veteran owned small business (VOSB) concern must be registered and verified in VA's Vendor Information Pages (VIP) database at www.vip.vetbiz.gov to be eligible for award as a SDVOSB or VOSB if/when a solicitation is issued for this requirement as a SDVOSB or VOSB set aside. In addition, this requirement has been determined to be set aside as SDVOSB or VOSB acquisition, only SDVOSB or VOSB that respond to this specific notice with in the above stated due date will be eligible for award.