The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) intends to award, on a sole source basis, a Purchase Order to The Mayo Clinic Rochester (DBA: Mayo Clinic College of Medicine ) 200 First Street SW, Rochester, MN, 55905 USA. A CDC Purchase Order will be issued to the Mayo Clinic to access and mine proprietary information contained within electronic records of the Rochester Epidemiological Project (REP). The Mayo Clinic will subsequently identify incident and prevalent Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) cases, address questions about risk factors for CFS using a retrospective case-control study design, and address questions about CFS-related mortality using a prospective design. In determining the date of CFS onset, and occurrence and date of onset of potential risk factors, the Mayo Clinic will ascertain whether potential risk factors are indeed risk factors for CFS or instead, comorbidities or spurious associations due to biased recall of events. The final deliverable will include prepared briefs to respective CDC staff, written reports, and an electronic abstraction tool that can be utilized to query CFS records found within the REP archives. The period of performance will be 10 consecutive months from the date of award of a purchase order. These services are being procured using simplified acquisition procedures in accordance with FAR Part 13, to exclude FAR Subpart 13.5. The authority for this sole-source acquisition is FAR Subpart 13.106-1(b). Justification for other than full and open competition is considered based on the belief that the Mayo Clinic is the only institution with intellectual property rights to data that comprises the Rochester Epidemiological Project (REP). The REP is an epidemiologic database containing comprehensive clinical records of the Olmstead County, Minnesota population since 1907. Approximately 70% of Olmstead County population reside in Rochester, Minnesota, the home of Mayo Institute. It is further believed that the REP is the only source of historical medical records which span a decade and contain the records of patients who have been diagnosed with CFS. Firms that believe they can provide the services as defined in this synopsis are encouraged to identify themselves and give written notification to the Contracting Officer within 15 days of the publication date of this synopsis. Determination by the Government not to compete this proposed action based on responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the U.S. Government. Respondents will assume all financial costs for preparing a response to this notice. The U.S. Government assumes no financial obligation for the preparation and distribution of prepared responses. Inquires may be sent to Russell T. Oxford by e-mail at
[email protected] or by fax to 770-488-2044.