By Kirsten Errick, Staff Reporter, Nextgov

The CDC is looking for vendors to provide subscription-based licenses to access digital health mobile applications for the agency’s employees, according to a request for information published on Friday.

According to the notice, the CDC wants an application that provides features for mindfulness and meditation fitting specific government employee needs. It should also provide links to “physical activities, stress-reduction interventions, mindfulness-based self-help interventions and guided meditation” in order to improve workers’ health and well-being. The RFI states these tools should help build qualities for “a stronger resistance to stress among CDC employees.”

A 2021 American Psychological Association survey found that 59 per cent of American workers reported feeling negative effects of work-related stress in the past month.

The RFI is from the agency’s Office of Safety, Security and Asset Management and the WorkLife Wellness Office, with a mission to promote and ensure a safe and healthy work environment. The office focuses on eight dimensions of health: emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, occupational, physical, social and spiritual.

The digital application the agency is looking for should have mobile and web capabilities and be able to be whitelisted on the agency’s website for new registrants to access the enterprise subscription. It should also have an administrative dashboard, aggregate reporting on usage, updated meditation and mindfulness content on a weekly basis and associated webinars offered by the provider.

The CDC is looking for the vendor to provide a kick-off launch of the application at least one month after the award and to provide a customer engagement manager to help WWO keep track of data. Additionally, the vendor should: perform quality assurance and performance evaluations; prepare monthly performance and status reports; participate in performance evaluation meetings; create a plan to support performance requirements, quality assurance, performance improvement and quality control; and offer meeting and teleconference support to WWO.

Furthermore, according to the RFI, the vendor should also be FedRAMP approved if using a cloud solution, have similar experience supporting large organizations, have trained and licensed personnel and be able to provide 24/7 support.

The performance period will be up to 12 months from the contract award date. It will consist of a one year base period and four year-long option periods.

Responses are due to the contracting officer via email by March 30 at 2pm EDT.