National Library of Medicine, Office of Acquisitions Management, Building 38A, Room B1N17, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, Maryland 20894

A -- USING AN EXISTING TESTBED FOR RAPID PROTOTYPING AND SIMULATION OF TELEHEALTH AND TELEMEDICINE APPLICATIONS OF NATIONAL SIGNIFICANCE SOL n/a POC Mary V. Adamik, Contracting Officer, 301-496-6546 E-MAIL: click here to contact the contracting officer via, ma58r@nih.gov. The National Library of Medicine (NLM) intends to negotiate with the University of Southern California for an enhancement to Contract No. N01-LM-6-3543 which was awarded by the National Library of Medicine to evaluate the quality, access, and cost of care to provide an evaluation of telemedicine services using established and valid indicators for each parameter. One of the services being evaluated is a teleophthalmology network in which retinal images of diabetics are transferred for real-time analysis by subspecialty ophthalmologists. Approximately 100 subjects for this retinal study are being recruited from a low-income minority population in a federally-designated HPSA area in North Hollywood. It has been determined that the scientific merit of findings from this study would be enhanced through the opthalmological examination of a greater number of subjects. The purpose of this contract enhancement is to include an additional 110 subjects in the study; to obtain these additional subjects, it is anticipated that about 300 patients will need to be screened. Referral for treatment will be made when the retinal specialist has made a tentative diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy using the images and work-ups transmitted via the Internet from the clinic. Authority: 4`U.S.C. 253(c)(1), as set forth in FAR 6.302-1. Inherent duplication of cost to the government and unacceptable delays in completing the project make competition unfeasible for this enhancement. See Numbered Note 22. See Numbered Note 26. Posted 10/29/98 (W-SN266694). (0302)

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