NOTICE OF INTENT TO SOLE SOURCE: Ambient Scribing for Clinical Encounter Notes

This notice is prepared in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 5.2, Synopses of Proposed Contract Actions. This announcement constitutes the only notice and synopsis of the proposed action.

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Strategic Acquisition Center – Frederick (SAC-F), on behalf of the Veterans Health Administration, Digital Health Office, intends to award firm fixed priced contracts, within 60 days of this notice, to Nuance Communications, Inc. and Abridge Al, Inc., winners of the “AI Tech Sprint for Documenting VA Clinical Encounters and Integrating Community Care Data” challenge.

The challenge was a rigorous and competitive evaluation process authorized under the America COMPETES Act and aligned with the directives of Executive Order 14110. (Track One: Ambient Dictation for Clinical Encounter Notes). See challenge link for details: https://www.challenge.gov/?challenge=ai-tech-sprint-for-documenting-va-clinical-encounters-and-integrating-community-care-data. The statutory authority permitting this action is 41 U.S.C. § 1901, implemented by FAR 13.106 and 13.501.

The challenge notified all interested parties that winners may receive sole source contracts to implement the pilot programs for test and evaluation in live VA environments. These resultant contracts will deliver commercial, cloud-based, ambient scribe pilots, which utilizes Artificial Intelligence techniques and technologies, and Software as a Service tool, to transcribe clinical encounters and generate notes.

The program will integrate with the VA Electronic Health Record and workflows such that providers can initiate encounter recording without manual entry of patient identifying information, and draft notes can be automatically inserted into the electronic health record without copy and paste manual effort. Interested parties that believe they could satisfy the requirements listed above for SAC-F may identify their interest in writing by the response date for this notice. This notice is not a solicitation.

Information submitted in response to this notice will be used solely to determine whether competitive procedures could be used for this acquisition. All responses received by the closing date and time specified in the announcement will be considered by the VA. Any response to this notice must show clear and convincing evidence that the responding company can fulfil the VA’s requirements. A determination by the VA to not compete is solely within the discretion of the VA.

Any inquiries regarding this notice must be submitted in writing via email to the contracting point of contacts listed below no later than the date and time specified in the announcement.