U.S. ARMY MED. RESEARCH ACQUISITION ACT, MCMR-RMA, FORT DETRICK BLDG. 820, FREDERICK MD 21702-5014

A -- U.S. ARMY MEDICAL FEDERATED LABORATORY BROAD AGENCY ANNOUNCEMENT SOL DAMD17-95-#-0011 DUE 071795 POC Charles G. Smith, 301/619-2381,, Contracting Officer, Raegon B. Clutz,, 301/619-2395, Program Information, Jess, Edwards, 301/619-2468. U.S. Army Medical Federated Laboratory Broad Agency Announcement. A- INTRODUCTION: This announcement is issued based on the U.S. Army Federated Laboratory Concept. The basic construct of a federated laboratory is to continue strong in-house involvement to meet Army-unique requirements where there is little external expertise in the technologies, but to forge direct cooperative agreements with industry and university laboratories with recognized competencies in specific technology areas where the centers of expertise are definitely outside the government and where the potential of the technologies has a much broader application. Federal entities may participate in this Broad Agency Announcement. However, Federal entities may not take the lead in the organization and the management of the consortium. Reference: U.S. Army Medical Federated Laboratory Program Announcement published in the CBD on February 13, 1995; and, the revision published on February 23, 1995. The U.S. Army Medical Department's Medical Research & Materiel Command (MRMC) with Headquarters at Fort Detrick, Frederick, Maryland, hereby solicits proposals for a Medical Federated Laboratory. Proposals are due 3:00 PM Eastern time on July 17, 1995. B-INTERNET AVAILABILITY: Medical Federated Laboratory information is available on the DoD Telemedicine Test Bed World Wide Web (WWW) Server (http://ftdetrck-matmoweb.army.mil). The Program Announcement, any notices of amendments to the Broad Agency Announcement, responses to questions, details of MRMC on-going work, and any other information deemed useful to potential offerors will be provided at this address and contained in the directory called /pub/fedlab. C-OVERVIEW: The U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (MRMC) intends to accomplish the research and development goals contained in this Broad Agency Program Announcement through the issuance of up to two Cooperative Agreement(s) under the authority of 10 United States Code (USC) 2358, Research Projects. Interested parties will be required to form consortia involving health services providers, industry, and academia. A consortium shall, as a minimum, consist of a tertiary care health services provider, an industry partner, and two academic institutions. One academic institution must qualify as a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) or Minority Institution (MI); the other institution may be a non-HBCU/MI. The health services provider shall receive the largest share of the funding averaged over the five year period; however, no single member of the consortium shall receive more than 70% of the annual award amount. In addition, the HBCU/MI partner(s) shall receive collectively at least 10% of the award amount. Consortia articles of collaboration should provide for the exchange of researchers and ideas between members of other consortia and the Government. The consortium is encouraged to access and to involve innovative research efforts of small and small disadvantaged businesses. These small businesses may be included as consortium members, as sub-recipients performing appropriate aspects of the proposed program, or as suppliers of goods or services to the consortium. D-PROGRAM BACKGROUND: New realities demand innovative concepts to focus the capabilities of American industry and academia on the critical technology needs of military medicine. Most particularly, the explosion of information technology that is fueling profound change in commerce and education demands a new approach to the way the military medical departments conduct research and development - an approach that will both allow our military to improve the way it fights, and the civil sector to exploit the advantages of that new technology. The Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) has concerted programs that explore basic science and technology development. MRMC will build in partnership on these basic research and development ARPA programs through a federation of its in-house components with partners in civil health care, industry, and academia, striving together for new excellence in military telemedicine. MRMC seeks proposals from the nation's best tertiary and primary care providers, industrial firms, universities, and private laboratories or research institutes under the provisions of this single competitive BAA. This BAA requires respondents to form consortia with defined articles of collaboration providing for allocation of MRMC funds among collaborators, and describing mechanisms for exchanging ideas and personnel with counterparts, and with MRMC. The latter intellectual synergy must extend to sharing equipment and facilities to promote efficiency. A significant outcome of this effort will be to create a functionally significant core of private and government scientists and engineers focused on solving military telemedical challenges. E-TECHNICAL AREAS: This Program addresses two Technical Elements of MRMC's digitization initiative. Technical Element 1: TELECOMMUNICATIONS /AND INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION FOR TELEMEDICINE. The communications that support military telemedicine are properly a subset of battlefield telecommunications. Like other subsets, they involve the reliable, timely, and secure electronic transport of multimedia information over heterogeneous, digital networks exhibiting dynamic topologies. Telecommunications includes the seamless interface among tactical, operational, strategic, sustaining base, and commercial systems for joint and multinational deployments under the Global Command and Control System (GCCS). ''Telemedicine'' involves information pertaining to patients or exchanges between physicians-privileged communications in a legal sense-that often include complex images. ''Telecommunications'' as used here addresses issues that are insensitive to message content. ''Information distribution'' addresses issues that are content-sensitive. The goal is to field a highly mobile, flexible fighting force that operates in a joint (tri- service) and multinational battle environment. The telemedicine focus to support this goal must be based on emerging digital technologies in health care and telecommunications. Telecommunications focus involve short-range wireless communications-voice, video, and data-among soldiers in units on the battlefields, or within field hospitals, to intercontinental wired and satellite communications. The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has adopted commercial standards for its long-haul networks (the SONET / ATM global grid). There is an absolute requirement for the telecommunications networks to interoperate across the services and DISA. Research in this Technical Element should support the telecommunications goals with innovative ideas for application of future commercial technology to telemedicine. Battlefield telemedicine is characterized by unique challenges: the need for mission essential quality, survivable multilevel secure networks among mobile subscribers, the presence of hostile jamming, self-jamming, and physical destruction of communications assets, interception and alteration of messages, and the necessity of securing content, volume, and identities of users of communications exchanging voice, images, and data at various levels of classification. Battlefield telemedicine is concerned primarily with moving information in a reliable, secure, and timely manner through a hostile environment. ''Information'' includes imagery (including real-time video), voice and data. Telemedicine may also require retrieval of information from remote archives, and involve an unusual volume of data intensive consultations between CONUS hospitals and medical units overseas. Technical Element 2: DISTRIBUTED INTERACTIVE SIMULATION. Distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) is defined as a system enabling the execution of rule-based, stochastic, or deterministic models at distributed sites, with human-in-the-loop, linked for a common purpose and having a common view of that purpose. Each site consists of one or more processors, serving one of two forms of tactical engagement simulation (TES): (1) constructive, typically a stochastic model mounted on a work station (e.g., JANUS); (2) Virtual, usually a manned simulator, with robust computers and displays, representing a vehicle operating in a synthetic combat environment (e.g., SIMNET), or an individual combatant on a synthetic battlefield (I-PORT); (3) live, engagement simulation with actual forces maneuvering on an instrumented range (e.g., a Combat Training Center (CTC)), with one or more computers processing information on each participant's location, combat status, and weapon system interactions. Data among sites (nodes) is processed and communicated over the Defense Simulation Internet (DSI) using predefined DIS protocols. The nodes can be distributed anywhere in the world, in large numbers, and can function with different hardware and software so long as interfaces with DSI be provided, and the DIS protocols be observed. The objective of this Broad Agency Announcement is to conduct development requisite for inserting combat medics, physicians, and nurses into DIS, and engaging fully their professional skills and knowledge. Medical simulation in DIS can then be used: (1) during research and development to enable experienced AMEDD personnel to assess the form, fit, function, and military worth of proposed medical materiel, or new doctrine; (2) during the formal Test and Evaluation of materiel, to demonstrate that it is ready for fielding; (3) for rehearsals of military operations; and (4) in institutional and unit training. Increased automation of our forces and materiel, including its acquisition and operational utilization, provides the highest pay-off potential to offset the strategic and tactical disadvantages of a substantially smaller land-force, to reduce cost and time of maintaining force preparedness, and to increase mission adaptability and operational capability. To exploit this potential for its continued modernization, military medicine has adopted the concepts of Distributed Interactive Simulation and Digitization of the Battlefield. DIS, which encompasses high performance computing, communications networking, and automated information management, is central to their realization. To date, DIS simulation of medical units and functions on a combined arms battlefield has been primitive, chiefly live exercises at the CTC using the probabilistic ''casualty cards'' issued with the Multiple Integrated Laser Engagement Simulation (MILES) system. To engage medicine more broadly in DIS, the military requires a series of combat casualty histories, each a DIS- compatible scenario of the physiological progress of a particular casualty, preferably derived from empirical data, expressed in vital signs, imagery, or other appropriate stimuli for medical decisions, capable of interacting with human participants trying to affect clinical outcome. Hardware and software will be developed for each of two forms of DIS, and validated and verified for use in professional medical education and training. F-FUNDING: The Department of Army has identified Fiscal Year 1995 funds for the first program year ($3 million for Technical Element 1 and $3 million for Technical Element 2). The estimated funding for Technical Element 1 for FY 97 is $5 million, $6 million for FY98, $4 million for FY99, and $2 million for FY00. The estimated funding for Technical Element 2 for FY 97 is $6 million, $7 million for FY98, $5 million for FY99, and $3 million for FY00. Outyear funds are subject to the availability of funds and have not been programmed. Efforts are underway to identify funding for the outyears. (0151)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0002 19950601\A-0002.SOL)