MODIFICATION
U -- Skin Cancer Prevention and Wellness Education to Youth - JOFOC Arizona Cancer Center
- Notice Date
- 9/16/2010
- Notice Type
- Modification/Amendment
- NAICS
- 611310
— Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, 6707 Democracy Blvd., Suite 105, Bethesda, Maryland, 20894, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20894
- Solicitation Number
- NLM-10-146-SRE
- Archive Date
- 10/8/2010
- Point of Contact
- Sheila R. Edmonds, Phone: 3014966546, Sally Boakye, Phone: 301-496-6546
- E-Mail Address
-
sheila.edmonds@nih.gov, boakyes@mail.nih.gov
(sheila.edmonds@nih.gov, boakyes@mail.nih.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- JOFOC AMENDMENT #1: THIS NOTICE IS PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY - SEE ATTACHED JOFOC. In accordance with FAR Part 13.5, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Office of Communications and Public Liaison (OCPL) intends to procure professional services on a sole source basis from the University of Arizona, Arizona Cancer Center. Period of Performance The period of performance shall be 10 months from the date of award with two (2) additional one-year option periods. Purpose/Background The proposed contract is to plan a health educational intervention campaign, which provides skin cancer prevention and wellness information for middle and junior high school students via text messages on mobile phones. The primary intent is to activate teen interest in preventing skin cancer and wellness. The proposed contract is to provide a comprehensive plan that will serve as a template to complete the campaign's proposed implementation (second) and evaluation (third) phases. In the anticipated contract (or the campaign's planning phase), the contractors are asked to plan the administration, development, and evaluation components of a comprehensive wellness educational campaign that provides an initial focus on skin cancer prevention. The goal of the skin cancer prevention and wellness educational campaign is to activate interest, involvement, and education among middle and junior high school students at the campaign's intervention sites. The campaign seeks to significantly boost activation about health educational issues among young persons when tailored skin cancer prevention and other wellness messages are delivered by a popular mass media tool (health text messages on a mobile device) and are reinforced interpersonally (via the creation of peer reference groups and meaningful, related participatory activities, including possible educational interventions). The intervention activities will occur in the campaign's implementation or second phase, which is scheduled to occur in the year that follows the anticipated contract (or a 10-month planning phase). An assessment will occur in the campaign's evaluation (or third) phase, which is proposed to occur in the year that follows the implementation phase. A need for the proposed skin cancer prevention and wellness intervention study is evidenced by the elevated, lifetime melanoma risk experienced by young Arizonans, who receive significant sun exposure year round because they live in the Sonoran desert. While many Arizonans potentially experience a higher risk of skin cancer from unprotected sun exposure than other Americans, young Arizonans often are less engaged in skin cancer prevention and wellness issues. However, their disengagement reflects less a disinterest in skin cancer prevention and wellness than a systematic and accidental lack of knowledge about sun exposure risks and more positive wellness strategies. The latter challenge creates an opportunity for educational intervention, behavioral therapy, peer reinforcement and activation. In addition, there is a dearth of skin cancer prevention and wellness educational programs in Tucson junior high schools because of cutbacks in public school funding -- and there are few parallel efforts to activate interest among young persons by area health care providers, educators, health care organizations, or among peer reference groups. In addition, middle and junior high school Arizonans are less exposed to skin cancer prevention and wellness information resulting from a series of addressable mass and interpersonal communication barriers. The media habits among middle and junior high school students limit their exposure to skin cancer prevention and wellness information that is more available on legacy media (radio, television, newspapers, or magazines, or Internet informational web sites) than mobile phone devices (which are the primary interpersonal and mass communication source for young persons). Indeed, the primary media resource to reach young Americans and Arizonans is via text messages that are sent to mobile communication devices, where the potential for health education targeted at young persons is comparatively underdeveloped (Pew Internet and American Life, 2010). As a result, middle and junior high school Arizonans represent an accidentally underserved demographic group with a clinical vulnerability to skin cancer and related wellness issues resulting from their geographical location. At the same time, young Arizonans currently receive little information within a preferred mass medium about medically relevant concerns (Bright, Fleisher, Thomsen, Morra, Marcua, Gehring, 2005) The envisioned campaign seeks to provide authoritative, evidence-based health education (from the Arizona Cancer Center) via the mass medium most used by young persons (mobile phone text messages) as well as peer pressure by engaging peer groups to become involved in skin cancer prevention and wellness activities. Wellness activities may include: skin safety, better nutrition, diet, healthy physical activity, and perhaps appropriate immunizations. The campaign's purposes are to active and reinforce interest (and overcome latent misunderstandings and oversights) about the importance of skin cancer prevention as well as promote wellness within intervention cohorts of middle and junior high school students. Overall, the proposed campaign is of significant interest to the National Library of Medicine (NLM) because: it a) represents a rare intervention to activate interest in better health and wellness among young persons, b) is a rare health education/intervention study among young persons, c) provides and assesses a novel mobile health application to middle and junior high school students (who use text messages heavily), d) is a community outreach intervention targeted at a medically underserved audience, e) assesses a health education/intervention study, and f) represents a rare collaboration between NLM's Office of Communication and Public Liaison, an NCI comprehensive cancer center, an area medical center, and junior high schools. It also is a health educational intervention that is focused on some clinically relevant challenges for middle and junior high school Arizonans. In aggregate, the campaign should yield previously unavailable insights about the activation of health interests among young persons, youth receptivity to health education via text messaging, and may provide a scalable model of future health educational interventions for similar audiences in other areas. The campaign is among the first project of its type and should provide a significant contribution to health education, consumer health informatics, behavioral therapy, and health communication literature. The campaign places NLM within the forefront of innovative health educational campaigns and mobile health technology interventions targeted at young persons. It provides important feedback to NLM and the Arizona Cancer Center about the viability of health educational interventions for young persons, and opens a gateway to future research regarding health educational interventions in other venues. The Arizona Cancer Center has received institutional review board approval from the University of Arizona for health educational projects that work with area K-12 schools. As a result, there is a precedent for the proposed research at the campaign's setting and the contractor is experienced in implementing various aspects of this campaign. Statement of Work: The Contractor shall 1): plan the administrative oversight of a comprehensive health educational intervention campaign, 2) plan the campaign's implementation phase and 3) plan the campaign's evaluation phase. The authors should address the first component within this planning document by: listing staff hiring needs, describing staff assignments, estimated staff time on task needed to implement phase 2 and phase 3, selection criteria and hiring of mentors at intervention sites, and overall staff coordination. The authors also should obtain permission for the campaign's implementation phase from the University of Arizona School of Medicine's Institutional Review Board (IRB) and provide plans to obtain IRB approval for the campaign's assessment phase. The Contractors shall address the second (implementation) component within this planning document by explaining the steps needed to: identify and obtain the assistance of the project's intervention and control sites, obtain the assistance of key faculty and administrators within the intervention and control junior high schools, obtain the assistance of key clinical, administrative and health educational personnel at the Arizona Cancer Center, create an editorial staff to provide skin cancer and wellness information to middle and junior high school students via mobile devices, familiarize the staff with the limitations of mobile device communication, initiate and complete pre-campaign focus groups of junior and middle school students to guide the development of mass communication materials and strategies, develop additional skin cancer prevention and wellness materials (using legacy media) to support peer reinforcement and buttress health educational efforts at the intervention sites, initiate targeted skin cancer prevention and wellness information via text messages, handle participant questions about skin cancer and wellness, and plan mass and interpersonal communication strategies to activate the intended, cohort audience. The Contractors shall address the third (evaluation) component within this planning document by explaining the steps needed to: develop the campaign's conceptual framework and outcome variables from a review of the literature in disciplines such as: public health, community health, health education, consumer health informatics, nutritional science, and health disparities. The contractor should identify the number to assess to obtain statistically significant differences among intervention and control groups, ensure methodological rigor in the instrument, scales, and methods, safeguard participant anonymity, create datasets, recommend appropriate statistical techniques, provide for a data reporting capacity, and assign authors to report the findings for refereed scholarly publications in relevant domain fields. The contractors should explain how the instrument's proposed outcome variables operationalize ‘participant activation.' The Contractor shall provide an executive summary to NLM that outlines the campaign's administrative, development, and evaluation components. The Contractor shall provide a more comprehensive planning document, which should detail the campaign's administration, implementation, and evaluation phase. All reports shall be written in Microsoft Word compatible format. A power point or keynote presentation that summarizes the executive summary is suggested. More reporting issues are addressed in the ‘reporting requirement's section below. Dissemination of findings The Contractor shall provide an executive summary and a more comprehensive report about the campaign's three components to NLM's designated COTR. Other reporting requirements are described in the ‘reporting requirements' section below. If the contractor prepares a research paper or papers for refereed academic meetings and refereed journals based on the first, or subsequent phases of this campaign, the contractor is expected to cite the NLM contract, welcome the collaboration of designated NLM COTRs, provide some explanation about the selection of outcome variables, discuss the reliability and validity of these outcome measures, and follow other reporting requirements noted below. The latter information should be included even if the contractor's preparation of academic papers occurs after the required tasks in this contract are completed. Required tasks The following tasks shall be completed as outlined. The professional services to be performed consist of the delivery of hours of professional services in support of the following tasks. All phases and subtasks, which are described under synopsis and proposed work above, shall be done in monthly, iterative stages. The reporting requirements are in the ‘reporting requirements' section below. Task description: Phase 1: Subtask 1. The Contractor shall initiate a plan of administrative oversight for a comprehensive health educational intervention campaign. Subtask 2. The Contractor shall initiate a plan to implement a comprehensive health educational intervention campaign and identify the campaign's intervention and control sites. Subtask 3. The Contractor shall initiate an evaluation plan for a comprehensive health educational intervention campaign. Subtask 4. The Contractor shall initiate a review of local institutional review board needs to advance the campaign (as required by procedures at the University of Arizona). Phase 2: Subtask 1. The Contractor shall identify a list of project staff and a description of staff assignments. Subtask 2. The Contractor shall begin to provide a detailed implementation plan as discussed in the ‘proposed work' and ‘proposed methods' sections above. This phase may include: the assistance of key faculty and administrators within the intervention and control sites, plus the creation of an editorial staff to implement the interpersonal and mass communication strategies necessary to implement the campaign. Subtask 3. The Contractor shall begin to provide a detailed evaluation plan as discussed in the ‘proposed work' and ‘proposed methods' sections above. This phase shall include a review of the interdisciplinary literature outlined in the ‘proposed methods' section in order to identify a conceptual framework and outcome variables. The latter will undergird the instrument used to assess the health educational intervention campaign. Phase 3: Subtask 1. The Contractor shall complete an overall administrative plan that includes: a staff coordination plan, a proposed timeline and estimated staff time to implement phases two and three of the campaign. Subtask 2. The Contractor shall continue to provide and complete a detailed implementation plan as discussed in the ‘proposed work' and ‘proposed methods' sections above that includes a proposed timeline. This phase may include: pre-campaign focus groups on the intended audience, the creation of mass communication and interpersonal communication strategies to activate interest in skin cancer prevention and wellness among intended audiences at the campaign's intervention sites, plans to respond to a questions by participants at the intervention sties, creation of educational strategies to reinforce interest among the campaign's intervention cohort, and feedback arrangements between the campaign's staff and participants at the intervention sites. Subtask 3. The Contractor shall continue to develop and complete a detailed evaluation plan as discussed in the ‘proposed work' and ‘proposed methods' sections above that includes a proposed timeline. This phase may include: proposing outcome variables (derived from the extant literature), proposing instrument scales, proposing an evaluation instrument, explanation of strategies to promote methodological rigor, instrument dissemination plans at the intervention and control sites, plans to ensure the completion of the instrument at intervention and control sites, steps to ensure respondent anonymity, suggested hypotheses, an outline of appropriate statistical evaluation techniques, and the assignment of authors to report the evaluation's findings. Subtask 4. The Contractor shall collaborate with the designated COTR within NLM's Office of Communication and Public Liaison to develop an implementation phase -- or a second contract to support the educational intervention campaign. Phase 4: Subtask 1. The Contractor shall provide an executive summary and a comprehensive report of the campaign's three components to the designated COTR in NLM's Office of Communications and Public Liaison. The executive summary and comprehensive report shall follow the suggestions in the ‘proposed methods,' ‘proposed work,' and ‘reporting requirements' sections. Both the executive summary and comprehensive report should be in written form. Other reporting requirements are described in the ‘reporting requirements' section below. Subtask 2. The Contractor shall collaborate with the designated COTR within NLM's Office of Communication and Public Liaison to develop an implementation phase (or a second contract to support) the health intervention campaign. Subtask 3. The Contractor shall receive IRB approval for the campaign's intervention phase. Deliverables Phase 1: Deliverables: Subtasks 1, 2, 3, and 4 should be phased in on a monthly basis two months after the contract award. A monthly progress report will be delivered by teleconference to the designated COTR within NLM's Office of Communications and Public Liaison. Other reporting requirements are in the ‘reporting requirements' section immediately below. Phase 2: Deliverables: Subtasks 1, 2, and 3 should be phased in on a monthly basis starting in the second through the fifth month after the contract begins. A monthly progress report will be delivered by teleconference to the designated COTR within NLM's Office of Communications and Public Liaison. Other reporting requirements are in the ‘reporting requirements' section immediately below. Phase 3: Deliverables: Subtasks 1, 2, 3, and 4 should be phased in on a monthly basis starting from the fourth through the eighth month after the contract begins. A monthly progress report will be delivered by teleconference to the designated COTR within NLM's Office of Communications and Public Liaison. Other reporting requirements are in the ‘reporting requirements' section immediately below. Phase 4: Deliverables: Subtasks 1, 2, and 3 should be completed between the eighth through the tenth month. A monthly progress report will be delivered by teleconference to the designated COTR within NLM's Office of Communications and Public Liaison. An executive summary and comprehensive report are due during the tenth month to the designated COTR within NLM's Office of Communications and Public Liaison. Other reporting requirements are in the ‘reporting requirements' section immediately below. Reporting requirements The Contractor shall provide quarterly reports about the campaign's progress. These brief reports should be provided to the designated COTR within NLM's Office of Communications and Public Liaison. A monthly progress report will be delivered by teleconference to the designated COTR at NLM's Office of Communications and Public Liaison. The executive summary should introduce the plans for the campaign's administrative, development, and evaluation components. It should be provided to the designated COTR within NLM's Office of Communications and Public Liaison. The more comprehensive planning document should provide specific timelines with recommended administrative and implementation steps to complete the intervention phase of the project in one year, and a timeline and plan with recommended administrative and implementations steps to complete and prepare manuscripts about the campaign's evaluation in the 12 months following the completion of the intervention phase. The comprehensive planning document should be provided to the designated COTR within NLM's Office of Communications and Public Liaison. More description of the comprehensive report is provided in the ‘proposed methods' and ‘proposed work' sections above. If the contractor prepares a research paper or papers for refereed academic meetings and refereed journals based on the first, or subsequent phases of this campaign, the contractor is expected to cite the NLM contract, welcome the collaboration of designated NLM COTR, provide some explanation about the selection of outcome variables, discuss the reliability and validity of these outcome measures, and follow other reporting requirements noted below. The latter information should be included even if the contractor's preparation of academic papers occurs after the required tasks in this contract are completed. All reports should be written in Microsoft Word compatible format. All future instruments, publications, and presentations should be Section 508 compliant. Any publications resulting from this work should be deposited in PubMed Central. Sole Source Justification: The Arizona Cancer Center is uniquely qualified to be the contractor for the skin cancer prevention and wellness educational intervention campaign. The Arizona Cancer Center is a National Cancer Institute (NCI) designated comprehensive cancer care center, and is located within the School of Medicine at the University of Arizona. There are 38 NCI designated comprehensive cancer centers in the U.S., which are distinguished by their quality of clinical care and research. The Arizona Cancer Center is the only NCI comprehensive cancer center in Arizona. It is the only NCI comprehensive cancer center nationally that features clinical practice and research subdivisions which specialize in health disparities and skin cancer. The Arizona Cancer Center also is the only NCI comprehensive cancer center actively involved in health education and community outreach programs that are targeted towards young persons, which include educational efforts in area schools. The Arizona Cancer Center has a history of health education and community outreach programs that are targeted towards young persons and features health education programs that occasionally are administered with the cooperation of area schools. Indeed, it is rare -- if not unique -- for a nationally recognized, NCI comprehensive cancer center to have experience with health educational interventions targeted at young persons that feature active cooperation with area K-12 schools. The success of this campaign requires credentialed scholars and persons with extensive field experience in at least five academic disciplines including: public health, community health, health disparities, health information technology, epidemiology, mhealth (use of mobile devices for medical interventions and education), health communication, health education, consumer health informatics, medical sociology, nutritional science, youth behavioral therapy, and clinical medicine. In addition, the campaign's success depends on the credentialed scholars' immediate access to peer researchers with experience within these disciplinary areas. More specifically, the campaign's success turns on investigators with recent field work in: epidemiology, youth wellness and behavioral therapy interventions, developing health educational campaigns targeted at young persons, managing a health educational intervention campaign targeted at young persons, developing and managing a health educational campaign for diverse demographic groups that include medically underserved audiences, access to K-12 area schools, a track record of successful collaboration with K-12 area schools, developing cohort groups in K-12 area schools, plus health intervention campaign research and instrument development. To fill the requirements for the contract NLM looked for persons with nationally recognized experience who also have significant academic training in three or more of the other specified academic areas as well as persons in comprehensive cancer centers who recently have conducted health educational interventions targeted at young persons. A review of the 100+ members of the consumer health informatics interest group within the American Medical Informatics Association (the primary scholarly association in medical informatics) yielded no candidates with the requisite background to accomplish the project. A review of the 38 National Cancer Institute comprehensive cancer centers yielded none (except the Arizona Cancer Center) that have the requisite experience to complete a health educational intervention campaign targeted at middle and junior high school students. Moreover, the proposed contractor (the Arizona Cancer Center) offers significant in-kind contributions to this project. Dr. Alberts and Dr. Harris, two of the project's co-principal investigators, are not requesting salary for the proposed contract. Dr. Leischow, a project consultant, is not requesting salary for the proposed contract. The aggregate time in-kind contribution to this contract (or first phase of the campaign) is about 30 percent of direct labor costs and about 20 percent of the total estimated cost of the project. This will be a considerable cost savings to the Government. This campaign fulfills the mission of the NIH in that it seeks fundamental knowledge about the effects of skin cancer and prevention among youth. The application of that knowledge will enhance the health of middle and junior high students and expand their lifetime. The NIH is able to simultaneously accomplish its mission and reduce the cost of this health education intervention campaign by utilizing the in-kind contributory services of Drs. Alberts, Harris and Leischow. The in-kind contribution of their time and services will benefit the proposed project as they possess the requisite academic training and experience to foster and provide insights into skin cancer prevention and wellness information.   As a result, the contractor proposes significant in-kind time contributions, has the comprehensive and unique combination of field experience and background academic skills needed to complete the proposed work expeditiously. This is not a Request for Quotation (RFQ), nor is a RFQ available; however, all responsive sources may submit a proposal in a timely manner which will be considered by NLM. Firms interested in responding to this notice must be able to provide the referenced service as specified above. Responses must be in writing and must be received electronically at the Government infrastructure by 4:00 PM EST on Wednesday, September 1, 2010. Proposals must include pricing information and should reference Synopsis No. NLM-10-146/SRE and should be submitted to sheila.edmonds@nih.gov. Inquiries regarding this procurement shall be submitted electronically to sheila.edmonds@nih.gov and shall be received by 2:00 PM EST on Monday, August 30, 2010.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/HHS/NIH/OAM/NLM-10-146-SRE/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Bethesda, Maryland, 20894, United States
- Zip Code: 20894
- Zip Code: 20894
- Record
- SN02285851-W 20100918/100917000722-304cad5205c8e99078f60f6d6a993048 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
| FSG Index | This Issue's Index | Today's FBO Daily Index Page |