Social Security Administration, Office of Acquisition and Grants, 1710 Gwynn Oak Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21207-0696

R -- EXPERT CONSULTANTS FOR THE SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION'S RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW DISABILITY DECISION PROCESS POC Jane M. Quinn Tel: 410-965-9495 The Social Security Administration (SSA) seeks qualified experts to provide consultation and advice to a workgroup that is managing the agency's research and development of a new disability decision process. Offerors must have experience and expertise in one of the five subject areas discussed below, and will be expected to provide independent scientific review and expert recommendations in approach and methods for the research and development activities. This project is a part of an SSA initiative to improve its disability process by developing a new method for determining whether individuals are ''disabled.'' Without changing the current statutory definition of disability, the new process will be simpler and will focus decisionmaking on the functional consequences of an individual's impairment(s), measured as objectively as possible, and compared with the actual functional demands of work. (For additional information, see SSA's Disability Process Redesign sight on the World Wide Web at http://www.ssa.gov/programs/disability/DPRT_intro.html.) To plan and carry out this research, SSA formed a workgroup to direct, subject to senior executive oversight, day-to-day operation of all aspects of the project. The workgroup requires additional expertise in five subject areas of relevance to the project: assessment of functional consequences of physical impairments; assessment of functional consequences of mental impairments, including cognitive impairments; occupational analysis; research methodology; and health measurements. Consultants will be required to participate in all aspects of the research and development process, which may include reviewing and commenting on research plans; recommending additional research activities and preparing work requirements for those activities; consulting on the design of testing processes (e.g, tests of validity, reliability); reviewing and providing input on research products and test results; and recommending policy options. NOTE: Because the nature of the work to be performed, including the possibility of assisting SSA in the development of future acquisition, could result in an unfair competitive advantage, the consultants will be precluded from any involvement in such future acquisitions (e.g. as a bidder or a consultant/subcontractor to a bidder.) Ideal candidates will have appropriate educational credentials; have a broad range of experience in the appropriate subject area; and be free from any apparent or potential conflict of interest or ideological bias that could affect the objectivity of the research. For an expert in functional assessment of physical (or mental) impairments, this experience could be in: design, development, and testing of instruments or systems for assessing work-related physical (mental) functional ability; administration of physical (mental) functional assessments in both a clinical and research setting; evaluation of physical (mental) disorders, including (as appropriate) administration of psychological tests/measurements, in both a clinical and research setting; research projects related to assessment of work-related physical (mental) functioning, and involving analysis and formulation of public policy in the field of disability or a related field. For health measurements: identifying and measuring domains of health, disability, and mental and physical aspects of human performance; developing scales and thresholds of multiple domains; applying methods for collapsing multiple domains relating to a single outcome; and designing and conducting health research in the field of disability or a related field (especially reliability and validity studies of measurement instrumentation). For occupational analysis: conducting job/task analysis and occupational classification; researching, designing, and evaluating job analysis and occupational classification systems, especially with respect to the physical and mental functional demands of jobs; research in the fields of disability and vocational rehabilitation, with specific evaluation of how disabilities affect the ability to work; analyzing and formulating public policy in the field of disability. For research methodology: designing and undertaking large scale research projects (especially those requiring experimental design) that involved evaluating an established process and researching new approaches; designing and conducting tests of validity and reliability; medical and functional evaluation of individuals with disabilities, job or task analysis, and examination of disability evaluation processes; and analyzing and formulating public policy in the field of disability. Sources interested in participating in this requirement must submit their name and address in writing within thirty (30) days from this announcement to Jane M. Quinn, Social Security Administration, 1710 Gwynn Oak Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland 21207. (0143)

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