Prior Information Notice (PIN) for an innovation partnership to develop Artificial Intelligence (AI) in mammography

Description

The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust (RM), working as part of a RM Partners (cancer alliance for north west and south west London) funded programme is seeking to create an innovation partnership to support a clinical research evaluation of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool developed for diagnosis of breast cancer on mammography images acquired in breast screening, in a retrospective study of use on images acquired in the symptomatic breast clinic. <br/><br/>This procurement is to partner with an AI vendor to demonstrate performance of their AI tool developed for use in breast screening, in the context of the symptomatic breast clinic, using retrospective data. <br/><br/>This project hypothesis is that an AI tool developed for use in breast screening could be useful in the context of symptomatic breast clinics. However, these systems developed in the screening setting have unknown performance in the context of symptomatic breast clinic. It is therefore important to test the performance of these systems in this alternative setting. <br/><br/>This work will be carried out in collaboration with the selected AI vendor and clinical teams from participating sites providing retrospective data to define optimal use case scenarios for the symptomatic breast clinic. <br/><br/>This project is funded by RM Partners, the cancer alliance for north west and south west London for 18 months and research ethics submission for a multi-centre, retrospective, diagnostic accuracy study is underway. <br/><br/>The Authority is seeking to engage the market to further explore and define the technical and commercial delivery models that would underpin the partnership. <br/><br/>Further information, including details of how to submit an expression of interest as part of Pre-Market Engagement, can be found at the end of this Notice. Lot 1: The procurement is for an innovation partner and associated artificial intelligence software and data analytics services.<br/><br/>It is envisaged that the Authority and the successful Bidder will enter into an innovative commercial agreement, whereby the contract won’t hold a monetary value. The Authority has no budget available to directly fund this initiative. Methods to account for and exchange value delivered through the partnership will be discussed. Provision of an AI based mammography analysis tool is to be deployed in a cloud environment by Royal Surrey Scientific Computing team and run on a retrospective curated dataset comprising of around 25,000 cases and there will be no data sharing with the successful Bidder. Data will be used in a research context only. Not for clinical deployment under this procurement. <br/><br/><br/>The outline requirements are:<br/><br/><br/>For use with 2D FFDM mammograms and Digital Breast Tomosynthesis (DBT) imaging.<br/><br/>CE marked for use in breast screening (but CE marked for use in this alternative context of symptomatic clinic patients is not required).<br/><br/>A strong publication history, ideally demonstrating state-of-the-art performance. <br/><br/>System is proven to be deployable within a clinical environment for real-time clinical use.<br/><br/>An enthusiastic development team who will be willing to devote time in this project required to optimise system functioning to be best suited to this use case.<br/><br/>Suppliers interested in this opportunity will have the option to <br/>submit an expression of interest to join premarket engagement and capture market feedback. Please refer to section VI.3) Additional information below for further instructions on how to submit this response.<br/><br/>Please note that the market engagement activity will not be used to formally evaluate suppliers and any information shared will be used for information purposes only to provide insights and to assist RM to prepare for the procurement. Any information received or discussions held will not contribute to or influence the evaluation of any potential future tender submissions.<br/><br/>Participation in this exercise is optional with all associated costs to be borne by the supplier. Any decision not to participate will not preclude any suppliers from participation in any subsequent procurement process following the eventual Contract Notice.<br/><br/>Subject to all necessary approvals, the Authority anticipates a competition launch date in February 2024. This does not signify the commencement of any procurement process and does not constitute any commitment by RM. If the Authority decides to commence any procurement process(es) as contemplated by this notice, a separate notice(s) will be published at the relevant time.<br/><br/>There are likely to be market engagement sessions scheduled following on from the initial EoI process. Further details and indicative timeframes for engagement will be provided at a future date – these are likely to be held during January 2024.<br/><br/>The Authority intends to undertake a procurement in-line with this section.<br/><br/>This prior information notice has been issued to pre-market consultation as permitted by Regulation 40. Nothing in this prior information notice is intended to commit the Authority to a subsequent procurement. Additional information: Through the esourcing portal;<br/><br/>- Suppliers will be able to formally express interest to participate in the Pre-Market Engagement activity<br/>- Submit supporting product or capability statement information to help prepare for <br/><br/>- Access updates on any planned arrangements for supplier engagement sessions.