SOURCES SOUGHT
U -- Medical Dictionary
- Notice Date
- 9/13/2016
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 519130
— Internet Publishing and Broadcasting and Web Search Portals
- 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
- NIHLM2016898MM
- Archive Date
- 10/18/2016
- Point of Contact
- Maryann Meza, Phone: 3014517329
- E-Mail Address
-
maryann.meza@nih.gov
(maryann.meza@nih.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- Total Small Business
- Description
- This is a Small Business Sources Sought notice. The NAICS code for this Small Business Sources Sought notice is: 519130. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified small business sources; (2) whether they are small businesses; HUBZone small businesses; service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran-owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. An organization that is not considered a small business under the applicable NAICS code should not submit a response to this notice. All responsible sources may submit a capability statement which will be considered by the National Library of Medicine. This Sources Sought Notice is not a Request for Quotations (RFQ), nor is an RFQ available. Interested firms responding to this Sources Sought Notice must provide a capability statement that displays the following: (a) Microsoft Word or PDF file in 12 point font; (b) DUNS number, organization name, address, point of contact, and size and type of business (e.g., 8(a), HUBZone, etc) pursuant to the applicable NAICS code); (c) Technical and administrative points of contact, including names, titles, addresses, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail addresses; (d) Staff expertise, including their availability, experience, and formal and other training; (e) Current in-house capability and capacity to perform the work; (f) Prior completed projects of similar nature; (g) Corporate experience and management capability; and (h) Examples of prior completed Government contracts, references, and other related information. The capability statement should contain enough sufficient detail for the Government to make an informed decision regarding your capabilities; however, the statement should not exceed 6 pages (excluding attachments.) This sources sought notice requires capability statements to be submitted via eCPS.: 1) Electronic copy via the NLM electronic Contract Proposal Submission (eCPS) website at https://ecps.nih.gov/NLM. For directions on using eCPS, go to https://ecps.nih.gov/NLM/home/howto NOTE: To submit your electronic capability statement using eCPS, all offerors must have a valid NIH External Directory Account, which provides authentication and serves as a vehicle for secure transmission of documents and communication with the NLM. The NIH External Directory Account registration process may take up to 24 hours to become active. Submission of proposals by facsimile or e-mail is not accepted. All capability statements must be submitted electronically no later than 10:00am Eastern time on October 3rd, 2016 via the method indicated above. Disclaimer and Important Notes: This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. Confidentiality: No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non-proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s). -------------------------------------------- DRAFT Statement of Work MedlinePlus Medical Dictionary 1. Background Information To assist consumers in obtaining the information they need to make informed decisions about health care, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) has developed MedlinePlus (medlineplus.gov), an easily understandable Web resource for the public. MedlinePlus contains and links to information from authoritative health Web sites and content providers, especially those from the National Institutes of Health. NLM makes MedlinePlus available to the public through a variety of MedlinePlus-branded Web sites, Web services, Web applications, APIs, email and social media communications, XML files and search results. This Statement of Work (SOW) addresses NLM's need to license a medical dictionary source for MedlinePlus. 2. Objective The National Library of Medicine (NLM) intends to license a web-based English language medical dictionary to assist the public in locating the definitions of medical terms via MedlinePlus, to be included in MedlinePlus. NLM makes MedlinePlus available to the public through a variety of MedlinePlus-branded Web sites, Web services, Web applications, APIs, email and social media communications, XML files and search results. The dictionary must be available as an API (application programming interface). The API allows the dictionary to be hosted on a remote site but co-branded by MedlinePlus. 3. Content Requirements: a. The dictionary must contain at least 50,000 terms, to include diseases, diagnostic tests, medical abbreviations and acronyms, and major drug names and classes. In response please indicate the current number of terms. Please provide sample definition responses for the following terms: i. Coccyx ii. Diabetes iii. Metoprolol iv. Zika b. Hosting and display of dictionary content: i. NLM prefers to control the display of dictionary content and integrate the display into MedlinePlus web pages and search result pages, which can include the online NIH MedlinePlus magazine and MedlinePlus Connect response pages. NLM prefers that vendor allow individual elements of the definition response (such as a pronunciation aid, pronunciation audio file, definition text or synonym list) to be integrated into MedlinePlus web pages and site search results. ii. Alternatively, if the vendor will host the display of dictionary responses or other related content for NLM, the vendor must allow for MedlinePlus co-branding. Co-branded pages and content must be free of commercial endorsements or advertisements. c. Definitions must be written in consumer-friendly language. In response please indicate the intended audience for the online dictionary and the reading level or grade (including the measurement scale used to determine level or grade). d. Definitions must include consumer-friendly pronunciation guides that minimize the use of obscure phonetic conventions and symbols. i. Examples for ureter: 1. Acceptable: \ˈyo͝orədər, yo͝oˈrētər\ \ˈyu̇r-ət-ər, yu̇-ˈrēt-ər\ 2. Not acceptable: \jʊəˈriːtəɹ\ ii. Examples for syncope: 1. Acceptable: SING-kah-pe sin'kŏ-pē 2. Not acceptable: sɪŋkəpi e. Definitions should include pronunciation audio files. In response please indicate what percent of terms have this feature. f. Definitions must include alternative definitions and synonyms as appropriate. g. The dictionary must include a spellchecker or other mechanism to return recommended terms when no exact match is found. h. For any web pages hosted by the vendor, the vendor must provide the MedlinePlus staff with monthly statistics on use of the hosted pages by MedlinePlus visitors, or allow MedlinePlus staff access to a system to obtain the statistics directly. Required metrics are page views, visits and visitors separately reported for each MedlinePlus branded site. i. NLM will forward to the vendor any feedback received from users regarding content. Vendor should describe procedure for handling and responding to user feedback. j. Vendor must have policies in place regarding quality control and updating of the dictionary. Please provide these policies. Dictionary should be updated at least annually, for editorial corrections and addition of new terms as terminology changes. 4. Preferred (in addition to the mandatory requirements): a. Synonyms included within the definitions are linked to definitions for those synonyms. b. Illustrations with alt attribute text are included as appropriate (indicate what percentage of terms have illustrations or how many illustrations). c. Vendor specifies the conditions necessary to allow definition content to be used for the creation of "glossary pages" on MedlinePlus, with lists of defined terms that are related to a specific health concern, such as diabetes or heart disease. d. Vendor specifies the conditions necessary to allow definition content to be used in definition "pop-ups" that appear when a user hovers over specific medical terms on a MedlinePlus web page. e. Vendor specifies the conditions necessary to allow auto-complete suggestions to display when searching the dictionary via a search box on a MedlinePlus web page. f. A comparable medical dictionary is available in Spanish. g. Indicate other special features available. 5. Technical Requirements: a. An API must allow searching of the dictionary and must return definitions and other content in XML. An NLM-controlled search box or link will access the API from MedlinePlus web pages. Please supply the technical specifications for the API, a code sample, and the schema for the XML response. A DTD is also acceptable but schema is preferred for the XML response. b. Vendor must maintain the API and any vendor-hosted content or features so that they are available to the public 24/7, and the vendor must notify NLM in advance if there will be any planned system outages. c. The API must allow for expansion of the search term if the user types in just the beginning or root of a term, and returns a linked list of possible terms. d. Vendor should describe other available technical features. e. Use of dictionary content features will not require authentication or account creation by MedlinePlus end users. f. Accessibility of content: Any vendor-hosted content or features must meet Section 508 Guidelines and other accessibility requirements as specified in the Accessibility Compliance section. If illustrations are provided with definition content, the illustrations must have Section 508-compliant meaningful alt attribute text. Vendor must submit a completed GPAT. See the more specific requirements regarding Accessibility Compliance below. g. The awardee will be required to provide NLM with technical support and advance access to any vendor-hosted content or features in order to test the API and develop co-branding. h. When NLM staff identify major issues, related to content or technical issues, they will communicate the issue with the vendor. The vendor must describe their procedure and turn-around time for updates, including procedures and timeline for emergency updates. 5.1 Accessibility Requirements Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires that Federal agencies' electronic and information technology is accessible to people with disabilities. The dictionary Web site must be Section 508 compliant. Specifically, the end product must be conformant with all applicable provisions, including: 1194.22 Web-based intranet and internet information and applications 1194.24 Video and multimedia products (if applicable to the product offering) 1194.31 Functional performance criteria. 1194.41 Information, documentation, and support. Applicable clauses depend on the nature of the content. These provisions can be found at http://www.access-board.gov/sec508/standards.htm Updates to Section 508 guidelines are currently under revision. The Offeror will be expected to comply with revised section 508 standards within a reasonable timeframe once these new accessibility guidelines are issued. In addition, the Offeror should provide Level AA conformance to the World Wide Web Consortium's Web Accessibility Initiative (W3C-WAI) WCAG 2.0 standards when possible since they will likely soon be required by law under the update. Conformance includes ensuring that all content, including text, all non-text content such as multimedia and images, and any associated players or viewers, are fully accessible per Section 508 and WCAG 2.0 Level AA standards. This includes but is not limited to ensuring that all text elements are captioned and synchronized with the content and that all non-text elements are fully described, including any images, still or moving, that provide context as to the meaning of the content. 5.2 Accessibility Program Need Requirements for accessibility based on Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (29 U.S.C. 794d) are determined to be relevant for the following program need: "Medical Dictionary Source for MedlinePlus." 5.3 Accessibility Product Requirements 1194.22, 1194.24, 1194.31 and 1194.41 from 36 CFR part 1194 Subpart D have been determined to apply to this acquisition. Solicitation respondents must describe how Information and Communication Technology deliverables meet at least these requirements identified as applicable in the attached Government Product/Service Accessibility Template (GPAT). 5.4 Accessibility Evaluation Factors Responses to this solicitation will only be considered for award after it has been determined that the proposal adequately addresses the requirements for Section 508. Only proposals which contain adequate information to document their responsiveness to the Section 508 requirements (e.g. a completed GPAT) will be eligible for any additional merit consideration. 5.5 Accessibility Acceptance Criteria The medical dictionary licensed as a result of this solicitation will be accepted based in part on satisfaction of identified Section 508 requirements for accessibility. The dictionary vendor must include a completed GPAT, a sample of which is included as a part of this solicitation. The Offeror should complete the two right-hand columns, including an explanation of how the product complies with the clause. If the deliverable includes features and functions in addition to those identified as requirements, these features and functions also need to conform to relevant accessibility technical provisions, functional performance criteria, and information, documentation and support.
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