National Institute of Mental Health, Contracts Management Branch, Room 9C-15, Parklawn Building, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland 20857

A -- PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH ADVANCES, KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER, CLINICAL TRAINING, SERVICES DELIVERY SYSTEMS AND QUALITY OF CARE SOL NIMH-96-CR-0004 POC Contracting Officer, David J. Eskenazi, 301/443-2696 The proposed requirement is issued under Full & Open Competitive Procedures, the SIC code is 8099 and the size standard is 3.5 million dollars. The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the primary Federal Agency that oversees psychiatric training, is working with the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS), SAMHSA, the Federal Agency mandated to provide Federal leadership in mental health services delivery, to improve psychiatric training programs' abilities to incorporate research findings into training curricula. Psychiatric organizations, university training programs, and advocacy groups, recommended the NIMH and CMHS make changes to the present system to coordinate a nation-wide initiative that features the cooperation and collaboration of diverse psychiatric associations and related organizations. The contract's prime goal will be to integrate basic behavioral and neuroscience research findings into clinical psychiatric training programs across the country. The magnitude of these problems can only be minimized by a contractor that can demonstrate credibility with psychiatric associations, university training programs, advocacy groups, accreditation programs, and researchers (who will participate in or be impacted by the products that this contract will produce). Specifically, the contractor must have: 1) education, research experience, and post-graduate training expertise that demonstrates an understanding and experience in psychiatric research (terminology, concepts, methods, experience); 2) an understanding and experience with methods of research dissemination (including scientific and technical requirements for publication in the psychiatric-related journals); and 3) knowledge of graduate-level education and accreditation requirements in basic and clinical psychiatry. Furthermore, the contractor must demonstrate familiarity with professional associations and their infrastructures in order to utilize the associations' resources. Gaps currently exist in the ability of training programs to assimilate new research findings into existing programs, about clinical practice, service delivery and quality of care. The gaps can result in students receiving outdated information instead of state-of-the-art knowledge. Furthermore, these gaps can result in a ''snowballing effect'' of reduced training standards and quality of care because they do not include current research findings into the training programs, clinical practice, and other types of services delivery. On a ''micro'' level, these gaps reduce the quality of patient care and, on a ''macro'' level, America's medical standards are being reduced to something less than the best in the world. The contractor will need to foster activities to eliminate these gaps and to facilitate multi-disciplinary training that strengthen trainees' ability to understand the etiology and course of psychiatric illnesses. A three (3) year period of performance, cost reimbursement completion type contract is anticipated (this is a new requirement). RFP #NIMH-96-CR-0004, entitled: ''Psychiatric Research Advances, Knowledge Transfer, Clinical Training, Services Delivery Systems and Quality of Care'' is scheduled for issuance on or about 15 days after publication of this notice and will close approximately 35 calendar days thereafter. All requests must be made in writing or by FAX (301) 443-0143. Telephone requests will not be honored. (0198)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0002 19960717\A-0002.SOL)