Overview

The Clinton Health Access Initiative, Inc. (CHAI) is a global health organization committed to our mission of saving lives and reducing the burden of disease in low-and middle-income countries. We work at the invitation of governments to support them and the private sector to create and sustain high-quality health systems. 

CHAI was founded in 2002 in response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic with the goal of dramatically reducing the price of life-saving drugs and increasing access to these medicines in the countries with the highest burden of the disease. Over the following two decades, CHAI has expanded its focus. Today, along with HIV, we work in conjunction with our partners to prevent and treat infectious diseases such as COVID-19, malaria, tuberculosis, and hepatitis. Our work has also expanded into cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and other non-communicable diseases, and we work to accelerate the rollout of lifesaving vaccines, reduce maternal and child mortality, combat chronic malnutrition, and increase access to assistive technology. We are investing in horizontal approaches to strengthen health systems through programs in human resources for health, digital health, and health financing. With each new and innovative program, our strategy is grounded in maximizing sustainable impact at scale, ensuring that governments lead the solutions, that programs are designed to scale nationally, and learnings are shared globally.

At CHAI, our people are our greatest asset, and none of this work would be possible without their talent, time, dedication and passion for our mission and values. We are a highly diverse team of enthusiastic individuals across 40 countries with a broad range of skillsets and life experiences. CHAI is deeply grounded in the countries we work in, with majority of our staff based in program countries. 

In India, CHAI works in partnership with its India registered affiliate William J Clinton Foundation (WJCF) under the guidance of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) at the Central and States' levels on an array of high priority initiatives aimed at improving health outcomes. Currently, WJCF supports government partners across projects to expand access to quality care and treatment for HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis, tuberculosis, COVID-19, common cancers, sexual and reproductive health, immunization, and essential medicines.

Learn more about our exciting work: http://www.clintonhealthaccess.org

Project background

According to the World Health Organization’s Global TB report 2022, an estimated 10.6 million people fell ill with tuberculosis (TB) in 2021, an increase of 4.5% from 2020, and ~1.6 million people died from TB. The burden of drug-resistant TB (DR-TB) also increased by 3% between 2020 and 2021 with ~450 000 new cases of rifampicin-resistant TB (RR-TB) in 2021. This is the first time in many years that an increase has been reported in the number of people falling ill with TB and drug resistant TB.

TB services were among many others severely disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, but its impact on the TB response has been particularly severe. There is an urgent need for strategies to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and initiate urgent improvements in formal and community health systems.

WJCF works under the guidance of the Central TB Division (CTD) to implement novel interventions across 15 states to catalyze elimination targets outline in the National TB elimination Program (NTEP). It also lends technical support across a range of thematic areas- strategic planning, data analysis, monitoring and evaluation, patient management and delivery of services. Specifically, under the COVID-19 Response Mechanism (C19RM) of the Global Fund to Fight (GFATM), WJCF is undertaking an active-case finding (ACF) initiative to increase TB detection and address delays in diagnosis and treatment. Recognizing the criticality of chest X-ray as a diagnostic tool, ultraportable handheld chest X-ray machines (dCXR) with integrated Computer-Aided Detection (CAD) artificial intelligence (AI) software for automated interpretation are currently being procured and deployed at identified peripheral health institutes (PHIs) across multiple districts in nine states to generate evidence and demonstrate various use cases for wider adoption and scale-up. 

As a next step to ensure the current C19RM intervention is scaled up, WJCF, under the aegis of NTEP and the Country Coordinating Mechanism (CCM), will be assisting in procurement of additional dCXR + CAD units to augment current ACF efforts under the NTEP in multiple States and screening infrastructure at the primary health facility level, at key identified peripheral health institutes. As part of this procurement, WJCF shall undertake: a detailed needs assessment for optimal allocation of the units, an RFP and a subsequent proposal evaluation process to identify the right vendor(s) to engage with, and coordination with States to ensure smooth delivery and installation.  

Position summary

The d-CXR and CAD-AI Expert will support the Program Director leading the C-19RM + CCM project in procurement of HH X-ray +CAD AI devices. The d-CXR and CAD-AI expert will be a member of the Technical Procurement team and is expected to support in the review of technical specifications, evaluation criteria, and assist the procurement team during on field demonstration by the vendors. Whilst the role can be based remotely, the consultant should be willing to travel to Delhi as per the project requirements.

Key deliverables and outputs will include a presentation to the procurement committee, a finalised RFP by WJCF and Donors, an evaluatation of received proposals, and an evaluatation of on field performance of proposed units for each vendor. Whilst the role can be based remotely, the consultant should be willing to travel to Delhi as per the project requirements.

Estimated number of hours: A maximum of over a period of 3 months, as required.

Responsibilities

Review of technical specifications

• The project team has drafted a list of technical specifications for the procurement including specifications for the Xray unit, CAD software, picture archiving and communication system (PACS), licenses, accessories, and service level agreements, relying heavily on WHO guidelines. The Expert shall review these specifications to see if they are necessary and sufficient for the purpose of the project.

Review of the evaluation criteria

• The Expert shall review the evaluation criteria developed by the project team for (a) objectivity (b) correct weight assignment (c) overall criteria-setting methodology.
• The Expert shall also advise the Evaluation Committee reviewing the proposals on criticality of key criteria.

Assistance in evaluation of vendors in on-field demonstration of the device and software unit

• The procurement process involves an on-site demonstration by the vendor of the proposed device and software unit. The Expert shall assist the team in the development of a scorecard for thorough evaluation of vendors for the on-field demonstration.
• The Expert shall guide the procurement committee on the performance of the proposed unit with respect to usability, quality of images, integration of the x-ray and CAD-AI software, and (d) PACS.

Qualifications

• Candidate must be a qualified radiologist or a Chest Physician
• Must have at least 10 years of experience in the field of Radiology or Reading Chest X-ray images
• Must have relevant knowledge of X-Rays and imaging

Preference will be given to individuals who have:

• Demonstrated knowledge of integration of X-Ray machine with CAD software
• Prior experience with ultraportable/portable handheld X-Ray device operations
• Prior experience of validating AI solutions
• Prior experience in procurement of Xray machines
• Demonstrated strategic thinking and attention to detail
• Willingness to undertake travel

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