Public procurement notice: Voluntary Ex Ante Transparency Notice
Published: 2018-07-24
Buyer: Norsk Helsenett SF
Country: NO
Contract type: Services
Procedure: Contract award without prior publication
CPV classification: 48814000: Medical information systems
Estimated value: 2400000 NOK

Technical requirements: There is currently no open, freely available reference about medication for children in Norway. Health personnel at Norwegian paediatric wards have had access to British National Formulary for Children BNF-C, that is a good source of information about medication for children, but access in Norway is limited. BNF-C can't be connected to electronic platforms. The Dutch Kinderformularium is a continuously updated reference about medication for children. Kinderformularium allows adaptation for Norwegian content (i.a. Marketing status for discussed preparations, information about available pharmacy manufactured preparations,dilution and administration of intravenous medications and interactions). Beyond translation work, facilitation for Norwegian content entails the Norwegian Medicines Manual acquiring clinical pharmacists, pharmacologists, paediatricians and editors in consultation with the Medicines for Children Network, Norway, and the Norwegian Paediatric Association.
There is currently no open, freely available reference work about medication for children in Norway. Helse og omsorgsdepartementet [the Ministry of Health and Care Services] gave Kontakpunkt [Contact Point] for multi-department medicine information (Statens legemiddelverk [the Norwegian Medicines Agency], Helsedirektoratet [the Norwegian Directorate of health], Direktoratet for e-helse [the Norwegian Directorate of eHealth] and Folkehelseinstiuttet [the Norwegian Institute of Public Health]) the task of finding an optimal national system for access to information about medication for children. Health personnel at Norwegian Paediatric Wards have had access to British National Formulary for Children (BNF-C), that is a good source of information about medications for children, but BNF-C does not have open data and the access in Norway is limited in spite of increased costs. It also isn't possible to connect BNF-C to electronic platforms. The Dutch Kinderformularium, started in 2006, is currently financed by Dutch authorities and the content in the Kinderformularium is referenced with continuous updating about medication for children. Kinderformularium allows adaptation for Norwegian content (i.a. Marketing status for discussed preparations, information about available pharmacy manufactured preparations,dilution and administration of intravenous medications and interactions). Beyond the translation work being carried out in the Netherlands (it is estimated that the translation will take approx. three months), facilitation for Norwegian content entails the Norwegian Medicines Manual acquiring clinic pharmacists, pharmacologists, paediatricians and editors in consultation with the Medicines for Children Network, Norway and the Norwegian Paediatric Association. The Ministry of Health and Care Services has been informed that the Norwegian Medicines Manual is listed as the assignment recipient, an that the assignment's funds are managed by the Norwegian Medicines Agency.
In practice, there is no other service provider than Kinderformularium either nationally or internationally, that offer open data in structured format and are licenses, and are currently relevant collaborators with the Norwegian Medicines Manual. Possible competitors, including MicroMedex, Lexi-Comp and BNF-C will be notified in connection with the prior information notice when the Association for publication of the Norwegian Medicines Manual is considered to be a public body in accordance with the public procurement regulation. Open license gives the Norwegian Medicines Manual the possibility of ownership of translated data and this is deciding in relation to a new procurement or replacement of service provider in the future. The format that the data from Kinderformularium is presented in,allows for integration in EPJ and without such an API interface, data cannot be translated or adapted to Norwegian conditions. This breaks with the Government's digitising programme (P-10/2012), point 5.7 about disclosure of public data. The services offered by Kinderformularium is considered to be unique and as such sufficient to cover the needs of both specialists and the primary health service for updated information about medications for children. At the same time, collaboration with Kinderformularium will contribute to the Norwegian Medicines Manual participating in the editorial work and allows for integration of the information at the Norwegian Medicines Manuals through and API Interface. Due to technical reasons, Kinderformularium is considered to be the only tenderer who can actually deliver the relevant performance as described above.
The contracting authority is Statens legemiddelverk and Foreningen for utgivelse av Norsk legemiddelhåndbok [the Norwegian Medicines Agency and the Association for Publication of the Norwegian Medicines Manual].


Winner: Kinderformularium
Award value: 2400000