Operation of the Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program (CPSP)

ADVANCE CONTRACT AWARD NOTICE (PAC)

TITLE: Operation of the Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program (CPSP)

SOLICITATION NUMBER: 1000173840

1. The purpose and explanation of an ACAN

An Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) allows Health Canada contracting authorities to post a notice on Buyandsell, for no less than fifteen (15) calendar days, indicating to the supplier community that a good, service or construction contract will be awarded to a pre-identified contractor. If no other supplier submits, on or before the closing date, a Statement of Capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, the contracting authority may then proceed with the award. However, should a Statement of Capabilities be found to meet the requirements set out in the ACAN, then the contracting authority will proceed to a full tendering process.

2.Rights of suppliers

Suppliers who believe that they are fully qualified and available to provide the services or goods described in this ACAN may submit a Statement of Capabilities clearly demonstrating how they meet the advertised requirement. This Statement of Capabilities must be provided via e-mail only to the contact person identified in Section 12 of the Notice on or before the closing date and time of the Notice. If there is a reasonable level of evidence regarding capability, the requirements will be opened to electronic or traditional bidding processes.

3. Proposed Contractor

Canadian Paediatric Society

2035 St Laurent Blvd,

Ottawa, Ontario

4. Definition of Requirements or Expected Results

Introduction

The Public Health Agencies’ Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program (CPSP) is an ongoing national child health surveillance activity of the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS). PHAC requires a contractor, to manage the Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program.

5. Objectives of the Requirement

5.1 CPSP Objectives

• To maintain and improve a national, collaborative population-based surveillance system to monitor health in Canadian children and youth.
• To perform surveillance on childhood disorders which are high in disability, morbidity, mortality and economic costs to society, despite their low frequency (less than 500 cases per year).
• To provide a platform for population-based surveillance to look at special populations and regional variations.
• To advance knowledge, enhance understanding and improve prevention, treatment and health- care planning related to high impact childhood disorders;
• To disseminate important surveillance results to health professionals, policy-makers and the general public in order to contribute to the health and well-being of Canadian children, through collaborative efforts;
• To provide an infrastructure that allows rapid and efficient transmission of information and;

alerting, including potential recommendations and information for action in response to public health emergencies pertaining to conditions included in the surveillance system.

6. Background and Specific Scope of the Requirement

6.1 CPSP Overview

The CPSP is a pan-Canadian network of paediatricians and paediatric sub-specialists who undertake active surveillance of low incidence, high impact childhood disorders (less than 500 cases per year) or rare complications of more frequent conditions. For these health events, national datacollection is required to generate a sufficient number of cases to derive meaningful results.

The Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program (CPSP) contributes to the improvement of the health of children and youth in Canada by national surveillance and research into childhood disorders thatare high in disability, morbidity and economic costs to society, despite their low frequency. TheCPSPgathers data from over 2,500 paediatricians and paediatric subspecialists each month to monitorrare diseases and conditions in Canadian children. Other participants, such as coroners, paediatricsurgeons and adult endocrinologists are enrolled in the program when research studies indicatetheir participation. These physicians cover a paediatric population of over seven million Canadianchildren and youth.

The difficulty in recognizing rare disease can result in delayed diagnosis, increasing the risk of preventable complications or death. Emerging infections will initially be rare and may remainundetected allowing infection to spread extensively before action is taken. All such diseases aredifficult to study as their low frequency often means that little may be known about their etiology,clinical spectrum, complications, pathological features, diagnosis, treatment and management.Datacollection from a large and often geographically diverse population is required to generate asufficient number of cases to derive meaningfuldata. Surveillance is an important part of the practiceof medicine, allowing for the tracking and studying of conditions. The CPSP was created to helpdetermine the burden of rare diseases and conditions and assess interventions to prevent theoccurrence, recurrence and/or complications. The information collected through CPSP isintended to inform the development of health policies to address the needs of patients with theseconditions.

6.2 CPSP Mission Statement

To contribute to the improvement of the health of children and youth in Canada by national surveillance and research into childhood disorders that are high in disability, morbidity, mortality and economic cost to society, despite their low frequency.

6.3 CPSP Scope

The CPSP shall manage an active surveillance program for selected rare paediatric conditions, based on monthly reporting by Canadian paediatricians, paediatric sub-specialists and other medical specialists.

1. The number of conditions under surveillance on the monthly report form card shall never exceed thirteen.
2. The average number of conditions under surveillance on the monthly report card

during a one-year period shall be ten studies.

3 The contract shall provide funds for a minimum of five conditions.

4. Upon approval of the Steering Committee, one-time survey questions or information items of clinical or public health relevance may be added to the monthly mail-out.

6.4 Tasks

The Contractor will be required but not limited to:

• determine, at the national level, the occurrence and characteristics of key paediatric conditions
• manage the selection of conditions to be placed under surveillance;
• administer the active surveillance of these conditions through reporting by CPSP participants and national-level data collation and analysis, as per the study protocols;
• communicate the surveillance results, including feedback to the program participants.

Administer active surveillance

• the preparation, design, translation, and printing of all reporting and correspondence materials;
• mailingand emailing of monthly Initial Report Forms (IRFs) to approximately 2,500 participants (paediatricians, allergists, geneticists, paediatric neurologists, etc.);
• mailing of Detailed Report Forms (DRFs) when a case under surveillance is identified;
• mailing and emailing of quarterly reminders to non-reports;
• follow-up of non-reports and clarification of information with paediatricians;
• collection, collation and computer entry of returned IRFs;
• timely collection and dissemination of DRFs to study investigators for analysis;
• ensuring the timely production of research reports on diseases/conditions under surveillance.

Communicate Results

• as appropriate, communicate results back to the paediatric and public health communities andto health researchers and policymakers.

7. Minimum requirements

Interested suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to meet the following specified requirements must submit a statement of capabilities clearly demonstrating how they meet the advertised requirements.

Applicants must fulfill all the minimum requirements:

• The supplier must demonstrate that they have experience in the management of a nationalsurveillance program involving multiple surveys to health professionals. This experience mustinclude at least 5 years of experience from date of the published ACAN in managing a surveillance program for paediatric conditions and demonstrated ability to obtain high survey response rates(min 70%);

• The supplier must have completed a minimum of three (3) multi-year, health-related projectstotalling 5 million within the past ten (10) years from date of this ACAN that came on time and on budget. As a minimum one example of the above must be a project requiring appropriateorganizational, human resource, budget and time management skills.
• The supplier must have experience working in multi-disciplinary groups. The supplier must demonstrate their experience working in multi-disciplinary groups providing as a minimum two (2)examples within the last five (5) years of this ACAN where specific techniques are used to addressthe tendency for different professional groups to have different assumptions, different lexicons,different values and different professionals norms to forge consensus and create commoninitiatives to the mutual benefit of all;
• The supplier must have demonstrated experience working with national public health professionalsin Canada. The supplier must provide as a minimum two (2) examples of successful jointcollaborations at all levels of public health care in Canada must be provided;
• The supplier must have the security clearance as specified under Section 8 “Security Requirements”below.

Note: Evidence of technical expertise, skills and successful experience should be demonstrated by measurable means, such as final project reports, publications, presentations and references.

8. Security Requirements

The following security requirements form a part of the requirement:

SECURITY REQUIREMENT FOR CANADIAN SUPPLIER:

PWGSC FILE: 1000173840

1. The Contractor/Offeror must, at all times during the performance of the Contract/Standing Offer, hold a valid Designated Organization Screening (DOS) with approved Document Safeguarding at the level of PROTECTED A, issued by the Canadian Industrial Security Directorate, Public Works and Government Services Canada.

2. The Contractor/Offeror personnel requiring access to PROTECTED information, assets or work site(s) must EACH hold a valid RELIABILITY STATUS, granted or approved by the Canadian Industrial Security Directorate (CISD), Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC).

3. The Contractor MUST NOT utilize its Information Technology systems to electronically process, produce or store PROTECTED information until the CISD/PWGSC has issued written approval. After approval has been granted or approved, these tasks may be performed at the level of PROTECTED A.

4. Subcontracts which contain security requirements are NOT to be awarded without the prior written permission of CISD/PWGSC.

5. The Contractor/Offeror must comply with the provisions of the:

(a) Security Requirements Check List and security guide (if applicable), attached at Annex­­­­­­­­­­­______ (to be provided at contract award”;

(b) Industrial Security Manual (Latest Edition)

9. Reason for non-competitive award

Only one person or firm is capable of performing this work.

CPS is the only supplier capable of meeting all of the requirements below:

• ŸContinuity and consistency of the survey sample population is required between past and future surveys to provide a strong scientific basis to interpret differences in repeated surveys on specific medical conditions.
• Access to names and contact information for a range of medical specialists treating children with a wide range of health conditions, including virtually all paediatricians in Canada. CPS has the full range of medical specialists with the expertise to identify and treat many of the rare conditions of interest in the CPSP. This in turn provides for efficient surveys of rare health events that affect children.

• Provides a high response rate to CPSP surveys based on their combined group of specialistswho are difficult to access
• Capable of attracting paediatricians and other specialists willing to donate their time to develop CPSP studies.

10. Applicable trade agreements and justification for limited tendering or the Procurement Strategy forAboriginal Business

Section 6 of the Government Contracts Regulations contains four exceptions that permit the contracting authority to set aside the requirement to solicit bids. These are:

(d) Only One Person or Firm is capable of performing the contract.

Article 506 Paragraph 12 (a) of the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) : to ensure compatibility with existing products, to recognize exclusive rights, such as exclusive licences, copyright and patent rights, or to maintain specialized products that must be maintained by the manufacturer or its representative;

Article 506 Paragraph 12 (b) of the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT): where there is an absence of competition for technical reasons and the goods or services can be supplied only by a particular supplier and no alternative or substitute exists;

Article XV (b) of the World Trade Organization/Agreement on Government Procurement (WTO/AGP):

when, for works of art or for reasons connected with protection of exclusive rights, such as patents orcopyrights, or in the absence of competition for technical reasons, the products or services can besupplied only by a particular supplier and no reasonable alternative or substitute exists;

Article XV (d) of the World Trade Organization/Agreement on Government Procurement (WTO/AGP):for additional deliveries by the original supplier which are intended either as parts replacement forexisting supplies, or installations, or as the extension of existing supplies, services, or installations wherea change of supplier would compel the entity to procure equipment or services not meeting requirements of interchangeability with already existing equipment or services

11.Ownership of Intellectual Property

Ownership of any Foreground Intellectual Property arising out of the proposed contract will vest in the Contractor.

12. Period of the proposed contract

The services of the Contractor will be required from Contract Award to March 31^st, 2019.

13. Estimated value of the proposed contract

The total value of any contract emanating from this Advanced Contract Award Notice (ACAN) shall not exceed $1,833,991 CAD, including all option periods, travel and living expenses and all applicable taxes.

14.Closing date and time

The closing date and time for accepting Statements of Capabilities is March 11, 2016 at 2:00 pm EST.

15. Contact Person

All inquiries with regard to this Notice must be addressed by e-mail to:

Name: Donna Pettit

E-Mail: Donna.pettit@hc-sc.gc.ca