Description
The United States Army Medical Research Acquisitions Activity (USAMRAA), on behalf of the U.S. Army Medical Material Agency (USAMMA), is issuing a Notice of Intent to Award a Sole Source contract. This is not a request for proposals. This notice does not represent a commitment by the Government to pay for cost incurred in preparation and submission of data in response to this announcement. This is a Notice of Intent to Award a Sole Source contract to Oceanit Laboratories, Inc., 828 Fort Street Mall #600, Honolulu, HI, 96813-4314, utilizing Joint Warfighter Medical Research Program (JWMRP) in accordance with FAR 6.302-1(a)(2), only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. As directed by Congress in the Department of Defense Appropriations Bill, 2014 Report 113-85, page 190, $100M quote mark shall be used to augment and accelerate high priority Department of Defense (DOD) and Service medical requirements and to continue prior year initiatives that are close to achieving their objectives and yielding a benefit to military medicine. The funds shall not be used for new projects or for basic research. quote mark For this reason, the undersigned determined that the cited statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is supported and required. This Bill essentially limits the competition to contractor's that have existing Congressional Special Interest Research Projects (contracts or assistance agreements) and have a military relevance. The Bill also states that funds shall be awarded at the discretion of the Secretary of Defense following a review of medical research and development gaps. The strategy in executing the JWMRP was to find highly valued research efforts on a research grant or contract that could meet critical service requirements and that were not being continued through other appropriations. Based on a comparative analysis by the scientific and programmatic reviewers from USAMRMC, approximately 45 JWMRP research projects were selected for a follow-on effort to the previous effort. The U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command of the Department of Defense (DOD) have worked with Oceanit Laboratories, Inc. as a subcontractor to the Henry M. Jackson Foundation on the subcontract award of MDA-00-1-0021 starting on April 17, 2001. Oceanit Laboratories, Inc. proposes to revise the LifeBed and Passive Physiological Monitor which provides continuous vital signs of the patient through a passive, unobtrusive sensor array into a Chair called a LifeChair. This chair will use non-contact methods to continuously and accurately monitor heart and respiration rate in medical evacuation scenarios. The contract will leverage existing FDA-approved, market-ready LifeBed technology; a bed coverlet that continuously and accurately monitors heart and respiration rates without requiring patient contact, in a hospital setting. In particular, the LifeBed hardware will be converted for a chair format and altered as needed to meet the wireless communications, EMI, and ruggedization standards associated with medical evacuation platforms. The software and underlying data processing/algorithms will be refined to be robust to noise introduced in a rotary wing or ground transportation scenario. Preliminary verification testing will evaluate usability and data accuracy, followed by more rigorous clinical trials in relevant operational environments.