National Cancer Institute, Research Contracts Branch, ESS, Executive Plaza South, Rm. 620, 6120 Executive Blvd., MSC 7224, Bethesda, MD 20892-7224

D -- BIOMEDICAL VOCABULARY SWITCHING PROTOTYPE POC Kim L. Hall, Contract Specialist, 301-496-8610 E-MAIL: Kim L. Hall, kh175r@nih.gov. The National Cancer Institute plans to procure on a Sole Source Basis, under authority of FAR 6.302-1, in accordance with 41 U.S.C. 253 (c) (1). The current effort is a follow on to previous development of a NCI Coding Engine from Lexical Technology, Inc. (LTI), 1000 Atlantic Avenue, Alameda, CA 94501-1147. Additional effort includes Enhancement of the NCI Enterprise Vocabulary System. The NCI Enterprise Vocabulary System is a component of the Science Information System (SIS). The goal of the SIS Project is to develop a highly specialized scientific information resource to support the NCI and the cancer research community. The SIS is intended to enable scientists, science managers and other individuals to generate comprehensive, integrated representations of current knowledge, past and ongoing NCI-sponsored research and emerging scientific questions regarding any aspect of cancer research or treatment. If the SIS is to be successful, a means must be found to improve the comprehensiveness and consistency of the terms used to describe the scientific content of grants, research projects, meetings, contracts and so forth. LTI has developed a biomedical vocabulary database and associated software that NCI has tested and found addresses these needs. NCI has begun conversion of the Enterprise Vocabulary System from prototype to operational status. The Enterprise Vocabulary System is a service accessible to any NCI application via an application programming interface and to individual NCI staff using a Java application. The Enterprise Vocabulary System returns authoritative terminology from a NCI code hierarchy and from the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) . The current support will address software and database refinement needed in the operational System. LTI is uniquely qualified to undertake this aspect of SIS support because of its: prior experience across the full range of the required technologies and practices; familiarity with the UMLS, and ongoing involvement with its maintenance and extension; familiarity with the NCI thesaurus and NCI terminology editing practices; and ability to provide a commercial off the shelf software product, Metaphrase, to server as the core of the Enterprise Vocabulary System. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals; however, interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to the requirement. Information furnished shall include enough material, in sufficient detail, to perform a proper evaluation of their ability to perform. Closing date is 45 days after publication of this notice. See Numbered Note: 22 Posted 11/17/98 (W-SN272104). (0321)

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