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Contract Opportunity

THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes; it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP), Request for Quotation (RFQ) or a promise to issue an RFP, or RFQ. This RFI does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service. The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Directorate of Science and Technology (S&T) Office of National Laboratories (ONL) National Urban Security Technology Laboratory (NUSTL) is not seeking proposals at this time. Responders are advised that the United States Government will not pay any cost incurred in response to this RFI. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the responding party’s expense. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future RFP, RFQ, or Broad Agency Announcement (BAA). The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. All submissions become the property of the Federal Government and will not be returned. In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organizations’ capabilities. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted.

I. BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

NUSTL is seeking information on Artificial Intelligence (AI)-facilitated emergency medical services call center software. NUSTL is interested in identifying software products that will provide users with an AI solution to address one or multiple needs of an Emergency Medical Service (EMS) call center to supplement human-in-the-loop operators. Specifically, EMS call center operators would use AI-facilitated software products to improve efficiency and accuracy of triaging conducted at call centers by supporting and identifying appropriate resources in response to medical calls. For the purposes of this Request for Information (RFI), AI is defined as “automated, machine-based technologies with at least some capacity for self-governance that can, for a given set of human-defined objectives, make predictions, recommendations, or decisions influencing real or virtual environments.” Once identified, NUSTL will be incorporating information about these products into a market survey report for publication.

Information submitted in response to this RFI must be for AI-facilitated EMS call center software products must be Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) or Government-off-the-shelf products that are available to the first responder community and meet the following minimum requirements (additional optional capabilities will be included in an associated required questionnaire):

• Compliant with Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations.


• AI software will use encryption, both at rest and in transit.


• AI software will have the ability to be updated with applicable security patches via protected channels.


• AI software is able to access databases typically available to EMS call centers, such as historical records, the status of resources, road conditions and traffic, and real-time audio.


• AI software will not require call center personnel resources beyond the typical staffing of call centers.


• AI software will not require access to real-time video to provide support but may include the use of video as part of its functionality when available.


• AI software will process and synthesize information in real-time.


• Information furnished to the EMS call center operator by the products should include, but are not limited to, the determination of the nature of medical emergencies, the most appropriate response given available resources, and/or identification of protocols to consider.

This information is being sought for the DHS S&T’s System Assessment and Validation for Emergency Responders (SAVER) program to assist emergency responder organizations in making procurement decisions. The SAVER program conducts objective assessments and validations on commercially available equipment and systems and develops knowledge products that provide relevant equipment information to responders, providing a life- and cost-saving asset to DHS, as well as to federal, state and local first responders. Information provided by the SAVER program will be shared nationally with the responder community. For more information on the SAVER program, visit the SAVER website at www.dhs.gov/science-and-technology/saver.

SAVER provides information on equipment and software that falls within the categories listed in the DHS Authorized Equipment List (AEL). The AEL item number for the subject product is 04AP-010-CADS entitled System, Dispatch, Computer Aided. The target audience for this information is emergency medical services (particularly their call center providers), as well as their respective purchasing agents.

II. SUBMISSION OF INFORMATION

Respondents are required to complete a written Product Summary Questionnaire for each product. The questionnaire associated with this RFI can be accessed here: https://nustl.gov1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7U5BGaCWJUfkWvY

The Product Summary Questionnaire includes questions seeking the following specific information:

1. Company name;

2. Company address;

3. Point(s) of contact (name, title, e-mail, and phone number);

4. Business type (manufacturer or distributor);

5. Product name, type, description, and specifications; and

6. Cost information (purchase price and General Services Administration (GSA) schedule information).

All information received will be treated as public knowledge and may be used in SAVER program documentation; therefore, vendors should not submit proprietary information in response to this RFI.

Responses to this RFI must be submitted no later than 4:00 PM Eastern Time on April 24, 2023. All technical comments, inquiries, and responses should be directed to Matthew Monetti via e-mail at NUSTL@hq.dhs.gov with “AI-Facilitated EMS Call Center” in the subject line.

III. OTHER

The submitted information will be evaluated for inclusion in SAVER projects and reports. The determination as to an individual product’s suitability will be made by NUSTL based on the objectives of this request. Therefore, requests for feedback should not be made through the Government-wide point of entry (GPE) the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) posting agency (https://sam.gov/content/home). Vendors may be contacted following submission for more detailed product information. Vendor-provided information may be reformatted for publication in SAVER program documents. If a vendor does not respond to additional requests for information on a specific product, information may be marked as “Not Available,” or the product may be removed from the SAVER documents.

Any unsolicited proposals or quotes in response to this RFI will not be considered.

Thank you for your interest, consideration, and hopefully your participation.

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