THALEA II is a procurement project, funded under h2020 programme, which aims at procuring a certified, manufacturer independent software solution for intensive care medicine. It serves as a second security layer for medical specialists on the ward. This will improve patient safety and outcome of treatment. To realize the purchase of such an advanced software solution, certain developments and tasks had to be fulfilled during the course of THALEA II.
The project started in June 2016 with a consortium of five entities including three procurers. Due to the fact that THALEA II is a procurement project, the procurement departments and also legal departments had to be involved from day one. The call for tender documents are the central element of this project. Those documents include a "request for tender" document, a functional specification matrix, several procurement documents related to German procurement processes (lead procurer UKA, therefore German procurement law is applicable). Those documents had to be developed and finalized during the project.
Furthermore, dissemination and exploitation of project progress and results was one aim of THALEA II. Therefore, a project website had to be set up and maintained during project activities. Dissemination activities including a newsletter, regularly updating the project website, and involvement on fairs and congresses were also part of project work during the first project period. One extraordinary example for a dissemination activity held during the course of THALEA II was the presentation of THALEA on the digital summit 2017. Professor Gernot Marx presented the THALEA prototype to the German chancellor Dr Angela Merkel, who was very impressed by such a device and eager to see it in real life settings.
THALEA II as procurement project strives to maximize market impact by including as many procurers as possible, who identified the need of such a specific software solution for intensive care medicine. As a result, THALEA II consortium tried to increase their buyers group by searching for potential partners. This was executed by participation in congresses as well as participation on fairs, like the MEDICA. There were several interested parties during the search process, which led in the end to one additional procuring partner from Vienna, Austria. In addition, THALEA consortium wanted to stay informed on recent developments in the sector of intensive care medicine and data extraction software solutions. Therefore, an open market consultation (OMC) had been performed. Due to the fact that THALEA II is an active procurement project, the OMC was performed as an online questionnaire, in order to prevent market agreements, respecting transparency and equality as leading principles in the procurement process.
One of the most crucial elements of a purchasable THALEA II solution is a certification as medical device, which makes it possible to use the product in daily care practices. This process took the industry longer than expected, which led to a shift in timing with respect to the call for tender. However, a sound time line for the call for tender, as well as the following deployment and evaluation phase could be developed. Finalization of call for tender documents, joint procurement agreement and open market consultation could be realized during the first project period.
