21-11-NDMS: Military-Civilian National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) Interoperability Study (MCNIS) Pilot Program
The FY20 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) states the Pilot will be conducted over five years at no less than five locations. The FY20 NDAA was reauthorized in FY21 (Section 741), and it directs the Pilot to establish partnerships with public, private, and nonprofit healthcare organizations in these locations. It also directs the Pilot to establish requirements for staffing, specialized training, medical logistics, telemedicine, patient regulating, movement, situational status reporting, tracking, and surveillance. The Pilot will be conducted in collaboration with the Secretaries of Veteran Affairs, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and Transportation. These agencies selected the following five (5) sites representing regional NDMS networks at which the Pilot will be conducted: Washington, DC; San Antonio, TX; Sacramento, CA; Omaha, NE; and Denver, CO. The NDMS definitive care partners in these metropolitan regions will be comprised of military and veterans administration healthcare facilities, Federal Coordinating Centers (FCCs), NDMS partner hospitals, and local health departments within a larger metropolitan area.
The Pilot will be carried out at these sites over five (5) years in three (3) Phases. Phase I is a study called the Military-Civilian NDMS Interoperability Study (MCNIS) and is already underway. MCNIS is designed to identify the NDMS medical surge issues, gaps, and best practices for each location. MCNIS is being conducted by the Operational Research and Integration Office-National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health (ORION). During Phase II, study findings will be incorporated into site specific implementation plans, which will be written and operationalized at each of the Pilot sites over five (5) years, per the NDAA. Information, procedures, activities and requirements from each of the sites will be used to develop a model prototype regional system for implementation nationally. Phase III of the Pilot will consist of reporting the results of the Pilot and planning for Pilot expansion in other NDMS locations.
Pilot implementation (Phase II), components of which are the focus of this RPP, will start on September 30, 2021 (note that this is the NDAA-mandated date for the broader Phase II activities but may not align with the actual award date for the resulting MTEC award). During Phase II, ORION will continue to strategically lead and integrate the Pilot effort and continue conducting mixed methods research to assess and guide Pilot operationalization. To complement ORION’s research and strategic integration role, a Field Implementation Team (FIT) will be created through this RPP as the Phase II operational arm of the Pilot. The FIT will execute Pilot implementation through operational lines of effort and Site Operational Coordinators in full coordination with ORION. The research project award recipient was selected from the Offerors who responded to MTEC’s Request for Project Proposals (21-11-NDMS).
Military‐Civilian National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) Interoperability Study (MCNIS) Pilot Program
Project Team: Deloitte Consulting
Award Amount: $9.46M
Project Duration: 12 months
Project Objective: Through a structured assessment framework, Deloitte will translate and operationalize Phase I research findings into implementation plans, establish critical evaluation infrastructure, and develop interoperable medical surge requirements. Our differentiators lay the foundation for the development of a prototype that can be used to systematically expand the Military‐Civilian National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) in the future and enhance the mission to build a ready healthcare network that is prepared to respond to mass casualty situations or large-scale evacuations.
