Rebecca@hl7.org to contractwork@lists.hl7.org

1.0           Contract Work Overview

1.1           Contract Name

SMART Health Cards and Links Balloting

1.2           Date of Announcement Release

This contract work announcement is released for public review on February 19, 2024. Proposals must be received no later than 5:00 pm Eastern Time in the USA on March 11, 2024.

1.3           Date of Selection

Provided there has been interest in this contract work by qualified individuals, and subject to HL7 approval of the contract and funding, the awarding of this contract is anticipated to be made by March 18, 2024.

1.4           Contract Period

This contract is expected to be awarded for actions or work to be performed and completed by September 7, 2024.

With the funding source expiring on September 7, 2024, we anticipate this project to be completed in two phases. This contract will be for Phase 1.  HL7 encourages candidates to integrate Phase 2 into their proposals and should funding become available for work conducted on September 8, 2024 forward, priority consideration will be given to these proposals for the Phase 2 project.

1.5           Contract Project Manager

Once awarded, the contract’s progress and subsequent fulfillment will be monitored and reported on by Rebecca Parsons PMP, HL7 Senior Program Manager.

2.0           Scope of Work

The overall purpose of this contract is to bring SMART Health Cards and SMART Health Links through the HL7 ballot process. This work will follow a similar collaboration model to how SMART App Launch and CDS Hooks became published HL7 standards.

SMART Health Cards and SMART Health Links provide a toolkit for consumer-mediated sharing of FHIR-based healthcare data. These specifications provide a technical basis for consumers to receive, store, and share health information, as well as the ability to provide digital signatures that can be used to ensure data are tamper-proof.

These specifications were developed during the COVID-19 pandemic response with participation from a community including the Verifiable Clinical Information initiative, SMART Health IT, Argonaut, and CARIN, with input from healthcare providers, insurance providers, public health agencies, and technology vendors. They have been deployed internationally to enable sharing of COVID-19 immunization and laboratory results, with follow-on projects in-progress to facilitate sharing lifetime vaccination histories and digital insurance cards.

This contractor’s main objective is to bring SMART Health Cards and SMART Health Links through the HL7 ballot process. The contractor will bring the existing specifications, with their existing feature set, into the HL7 ballot process; we intend to defer development of new features for a subsequent round of work.

Recognizing the prior work on SMART Health Cards and Links, HL7 International and Boston Children’s Hospital have already begun the necessary work to establish a joint copyright agreement.

A Project Proposal and subsequent Project Scope Statement (PSS-2309) have already been established within HL7’s standards development process.

Given the time constraints of our funding source, we anticipate this project to be completed in two phases. This contract is for Phase 1.

Phase 1

Bring SMART Health Cards and SMART Health Links to ballot within HL7’s standards development process (expected as a Standard for Trial Use) for September 2024 Ballot Cycle.

Tasks include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Work with the FHIR Infrastructure (FHIR-I) Workgroup as the sponsors of this project and the FHIR Management Group as necessary to advance the work in accordance with HL7’s methodology
• Establish project Github repositories within HL7’s Github organization
• Submit FHIR IG Proposal
• Develop specification using FHIR IG Publisher and incorporating FHIR IG best practices where appropriate
• Determine if May 2024 Connectathon 36 participation is required given test implementations
• Manage a Connectathon Track, if determined necessary
• Submit Notice of Intent to Ballot
• Finalize content and submit for Ballot

Deliverables include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Approved FHIR IG proposal
• Approved Notice of Intent to Ballot
• Complete ballot content (e.g. passes relevant QA criteria) checked into Github repository
• Approved specification version submitted for September 2024 ballot cycle

Optional Phase 1 Component: Complete ballot resolution and submit SMART Health Cards: Vaccination & Testing Implementation Guide v1.0.0 for publication

OPTIONAL tasks for SMART Health Cards: Vaccination & Testing Implementation Guide:

• Complete Ballot Reconciliation

• Compile list of as-of-yet unresolved ballot comments and develop a strategy to address them
• Develop proposed dispositions and lead review meetings with stakeholders to reach consensus on resolution of ballot comments
• Present comment dispositions to the primary Sponsoring Work Group (Public Health) and obtain approval votes for each comment
• Work with Sponsoring Work Group to post a completed ballot reconciliation file to the Ballot Desktop

• Publish SMART Health Cards: Vaccination & Testing Implementation Guide v1.0.0

• Prepare the final publication-ready IG package
• Obtain final approval from the Sponsoring Work Group and confirm reconciliation of all comments on ballot reconciliation spreadsheet
• Obtain necessary approvals from the Sponsoring Work Group, FHIR Management Group, and Technical Steering Committee, and then submit the package to HL7 for publication

Deliverables for OPTIONAL tasks include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Completed Ballot Reconciliation record
• Final publication-ready IG package checked into Github repository
• Approved Publication Request

Anticipated Phase 2 (Not Part of this RFP)

Reconcile ballot comments for SMART Health Cards and SMART Health Links and submit final content to HL7 for publication.

2.1           Program Management

A.     Create and maintain a Project Description slide stored in HL7’s Confluence space (exact location to be supplied by HL7; a template can be viewed here). Slide will include project purpose and description, project deliverables with target timeline, and a visual component.

B.     Submit twice monthly (the 1st and 15th of each month) a project status report stored in HL7’s Confluence space (location and template to be supplied by HL7) that includes current overall status of project, progress on deliverables since last update, any current issues, any future risks, and the next steps.

C.    The Contractor may also be asked to attend regularly scheduled (monthly or twice monthly) project status meetings via teleconference with the project stakeholders, HL7 project leader(s), and other project team members.

3.0           Selection Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated based on the overall best value, most timely and least risk approach for fulfilling the contract objectives, and the qualifications and experience of the contractor including, but not limited to:

1.     Preference for resources actively engaged in current HL7 FHIR and SMART activities

2.     Familiarity with processes and methods currently used by HL7

3.     Preference for resources with advanced knowledge of HL7 processes, tools, and standards

4.     Demonstrated experience coordinating similar projects

5.     Other relevant skill and experience

a.     Oral and written communication skills

b.     Analytical and process design skills

c.      Training experience

d.     Ability to work in a distributed, virtual environment

e.     Commitment to protect HL7 Intellectual Property

4.0           Selection Process

After the period has closed for receipt of proposals, each proposal will be examined to determine compliance with the format and information requirements specified in the RFP. HL7 reserves the right to reject any and all proposals.

●       A Selection Panel will review each proposal that meets the stated requirements.

●       Following independent evaluation of the proposal, the top candidates may be requested to participate in an interview.

●       One or more proposals may be selected to provide resources to the project.

●       The selected bidder(s) will be notified of the results.

5.0           How to obtain further Information

Direct any questions to:

Rebecca Parsons PMP, HL7’s Senior Program Manager Rebecca@HL7.org.

The contractwork@lists.hl7.org list service informs potential contractors of work to be contracted out by HL7 International. If you have received this announcement by a means other than this list, you should sign up for the free HL7 List Service at: https://www.hl7.org/myhl7/managelistservs.cfm?ref=nav.

Any updates to this contract work announcement, additional announcements or information will be posted to that list and will reference the contract name.

6.0           How to Submit your Proposal

If you want to bid for the contract work, you should submit your proposal via e-mail to: Rebecca@HL7.org (do NOT provide submissions to the contract work listserv). At a minimum, you should supply:

●       Proposed approach and considerations to fulfill the requirements detailed in this RFP, including a detailed description and timeline

●       Resource(s), cost(s) (including hourly rate (in USD) if applicable), estimated hours and proposed schedule for performing the work

NOTE: If your proposal indicates that speakers will be funded, your total cost should include the amounts that will be paid to speakers

●       Qualifications and resumes of proposed resources along with role and responsibilities

All submissions and information supplied to HL7 will become the property of HL7 International, Inc. and the awarded contract will be announced through the contractwork@lists.hl7.org list service.

7.0           Statutory Requirement: Division H, Title V, Section 505 of Public Law 114-113, of the

Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016

100% of the total costs of this project will be financed with Federal Money.

This project is/was supported by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under grant number 90AX0035/01-02 (Title: Closing the Gap Between Standards Development and Implementation) for grant amount $1,500,000 (0% financed with nongovernmental sources). This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by ONC, HHS or the U.S. Government.

Rebecca (Becca) Parsons, PMP

Senior Program Manager

(407)948-0650

***********************************************************************************
Reply and Reply-All will most likely send to list. Please verify address fields before sending!
Manage your subscriptions | View the archives | Unsubscribe | Terms of use | Feedback