National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Contracts Operations Branch, 6701 Rockledge Drive, Room 6100, MSC 7902, Bethesda, MD 20892

B -- SPECIAL STUDIES AND ANALYSIS -- NOT R&D SOL NHLBI-PS-2000-624 DUE 072400 POC Deborah Coulter, Purchasing Agent, (301) 435-0368 Fax (301) 480-3345 The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) intends to negotiate on a sole source basis with The Medstat Group/Inforum, 801 Crescent Centre Drive, Franklin, TN., 37067, to conduct special analyses on its proprietary consumer health marketing database and writing reports. The period of performance is approximately ten (10) weeks. In response to Healthy People 2010 objectives for heart disease and stroke and asthma, the NHLBI has increased its portfolio of activities to improve the cardiovascular health for all Americans and to achieve better control of asthma particularly in high-risk communities. The institute has already awarded seven contracts to community-based asthma coalitions to address control of asthma in high-risk communities. In addition, the NHLBI is creating a network of partners through the funding of enhanced dissemination and utilization centers to focus shared resources on addressing disparities in cardiovascular health in high-risk communities. These community-based projects will require a variety of information and data beyond what is available from national population-based surveys to help guide their local dissemination and implementation efforts. The purpose of this procurement is to secure critical health-related data on cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and asthma from the Medstat Group that will be used by network partners to plan and implement their projects in high-risk communities. Statement of Work: The procurement will involve The Medstat Group (Inforum) conducting special analyses on its proprietary consumer health marketing database and writing reports; (1) to identify 30 high-risk neighborhood clusters regarding cardiovascular disease (CVD) and asthma; (2) to profile the 30 identified high-risk clusters regarding health knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors and the potential of reaching populations through various media channels with health-education messages, and (3) to locate the 30 high-risk clusters within 30 counties of the U.S. Identifying High Risk Clusters: Medstat/Inforum will initially identify 30 high-risk CVD neighborhood clusters and 30 high-risk asthma clusters. Together with NHLBI staff, Medstat/Inforum will compile a final list of 30 high risk clusters from both the CVD and asthma lists. High-risk CVD clusters will be identified by creating an aggregate score for sampled households based on the following CVD-related items in the Pulse telephone survey: Has/does any members of the household: . . .been diagnosed with diabetes; been diagnosed with heart disease; . . .been told they have high blood pressure; . . currently use tobacco; . . .received a cholesterol screening with abnormal results and did not seek any follow-up care; . . .been provided with a treatment plan by a doctor that involved diet, exercise, or smoking but followed little if any of that prescribed plan. . . .not engaged in regular, vigorous physical activity at least 20 minutes a day, three times a week in the past month. The aggregate household score will be a sum of the positive responses to all these questions. High-risk asthma clusters will be identified from only one question in the Pulse survey: ...Has any household member every been diagnosed with asthma. An aggregate neighborhood cluster score will be calculated separately for CVD and asthma by summing the household scores by the 62 Claritas Prism clusters with which the Inforum Pulse survey is linked. That is, each Prism cluster will have a score for CVD risk and another score for asthma risk. The two lists will be sorted from highest to lowest score. It is expected that many of the clusters scoring highest on CVD be high on asthma and vice versa. Medstat/Inforum will recommend the final 30 clusters based on the rankings on both CVD and asthma risk. The NHLBI will either approve the recommendation as is, or recommend the list be revised. Cluster Profiling: Profile reports on the 30 neighborhood clusters selected above will be written by Medstat/Inforum. The profile information will be appropriate to program planning for both asthma and CVD. Specific information contained in the 30 reports will include: (1) Demographic characteristics households (e.g., age, ethnicity, income, education of head of household, etc). (2) Health knowledge, attitudes, and utilization (eg, self-reported health status, physician contacts, insurance, health-care usage, OTC and Rx drug usage). (3) Media habits (TV and cable, radio programs watched/heard and times of day, print media read). (4) Activities (leisure time and shopping habits). (5) Products and services (foods, drinks, household products). Narrative descriptions of the clusters based on the profile reports will be written by Medstat/Inforum staff. The narratives will also contain recommendations for reaching the populations with health-education messages directly or through local partners organizations/companies based on the information contained in the cluster reports. Locating high-risk clusters: The final phase of the project will entail locating the 30 high-risk neighborhoods at the Census Block level (or some other level agreed upon between Medstat/Inforum and NHLBI) within 30 counties across the U.S. If a Census Block level map is not appropriate, either a Census Tract level or a ZIP Code level map will be provided. Specifically, Medstat/Inforum will provide a choropleth (two-dimensional) map of each of the 30 counties which displays the high-risk neighborhoods color coded to the 30 high-risk areas identified above. The 30 counties to be mapped by Medstat/Inforum will need to be determined at a future date, specifically, after NHLBI determines in which counties the awarded asthma high-risk contracts and the soon-to-be awarded cardiovascular high-risk contracts will be operating. It is expected these reports and maps will be used to support the work of contracts in these areas so they may better understand the populations they are working with. Deliverables: Three sets of deliverables will be supplied by Medstat/Inforum: Two listings (in hard copy or electronic format) of neighborhood clusters ranked by cardiovascular risk and asthma risk. One list will rank clusters on cardiovascular risk, the other on asthma risk. From these two lists, Medstat/Inforum and NHLBI will agree upon 30 clusters to profile. Electronic document(s) in Word or Word Perfect format containing cluster profiles and narrative analyses of the 30 clusters selected above. Electronic graphics in PC-compatible (eg, CGM, TIF, BMP, WMF, JPEG, GIF, etc) format containing choropleth maps of 30 counties at a level of detail to be determined by Medstat/Inforum and NHLBI.. This requirement is under the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Code 8733, Size Standard $5.0M. This acquisition is being conducted under simplified acquisition procedures and is exempt for the requirements of FAR Part 6. The solicitation number NHLBI-PS-2000-625, is issued as a Request For Quotation (RFQ). The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and conducted are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 97-17. The following Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) clauses apply to this requirement; FAR Clause 52.212-1 Instructions To Offerors -- Commercial Items, FAR Clause 52.212-2, Evaluation- Commercial Items, FAR Clause 52.212-3, Offeror Representations And Certifications-Commercial Items, FAR Clause 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions-Commercial Items, and FAR Clause 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to implement statutes or executive orders- Commercial items. The clauses are available in full text at http://www.arnet.gov/far/. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals. Interested parties may identify their interest and capabilities in response to this requirement. The determination by the Government not to compete the proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining in whether to conduct future competitive procurement. Responses to this announcement, referencing synopsis number NHLBI-PS-2000-625 may be submitted to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Contracts Operations Branch, Procurement Section, Building RKL2, Room 6143, 6701 Rockledge Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892-7902, Attention: Deborah Coulter, Purchasing Agent. All responsible sources may submit a proposal which if timely received, shall be considered by the agency. Posted 07/07/00 (W-SN472328). (0189)

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