Updated February 17, 2021
Notice ID: CDC-NOI-75D3012007643-01
This action is a COVID-19 related requirement, and will result in a modification to CDC Contract 75D301-20-07643 to provide operational and analytic surge capacity associated with the National Syndromic Surveillance Program in support of COVID. Due to increased use of syndromic surveillance by states and CDC to monitor and respond to the outbreak, additional capacity is necessary to provide increased support for ESSENCE as part of the BioSense Platform. The resulting modification will increase the level of effort for this cost-type contract.
The original contract was awarded in 2020 as a sole source award. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory is the only entity capable of providing the needed support for ESSENCE. Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory is the only entity with access to the applications source code making them the only entity capable of providing the needed support for ESSENCE.
Updated April 7, 2020
Solicitation: 75D301-20-R-67876
ESSENCE is a web-based syndromic surveillance system designed for the early detection of disease outbreaks, suspicious patterns of illness, and public health emergencies. ESSENCE collects, processes, and analyzes non-traditional data sources (i.e. chief complaints from hospital emergency departments, poison control center calls, over-the-counter pharmaceutical sales, etc.) to identify anomalous disease activity in a community. The data can be queried, analyzed, and visualized both temporally and spatially by the end user. CDC has identified a need to procure ongoing contractor maintenance support of ESSENCE that will be available on the Bio Sense Platform.
The purpose of this project is to provide enhancements, operations and maintenance support, update training courses and update end-user documentation tools for ESSENCE to ensure that jurisdictions can use ESSENCE effectively.
The Contractor must be capable of developing and delivering the following enhancements to ESSENCE:
- Create a tool that can identify hospitals that have disruptions in their data feed
- Create a tool to better track data quality measures for states
- Making alerting system more actionable at the local level
- Explore machine learning
- Develop a “US Census Region” filter
Posted March 2, 2020
Solicitation: 75D301-20-R-67876
Under the authority of FAR 6.302-1, Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) contemplates entering into a negotiated, Cost reimbursement type contract with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL), of Laurel, MD Solicitation procedures will be IAW/FAR Part 15 with applicable subpart 16.3.
Under this contract JHU/APL will provide enhancements, operations and update training courses and update end-user documentation tools for ESSENCE to ensure that jurisdictions can use ESSENCE effectively.
To the best of our knowledge JHU/APL is the sole developer of the ESSENCE software and is the only one who can provide operational maintenance, support, and enhancements to the ESSENCE system per their license agreement. However, any responsible source who wishes to be considered may submit a quote addressing the requirements of the request for quotes (RFQ) when issued.
