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

R -- PROFESSIONAL SUPPORT SERVICES SOL NLM 00-107/UHP DUE 050100 POC Uyen H. Phuong (301) 496-6127 E-MAIL: karen_riggs@nlm.nih.gov, uyen_phuong@nlm.nih.gov. It is the intent of the National Library of Medicine (NLM), to negotiate on a sole source basis with New England Cochrane Center (NECC), c/o Brown University, Office of Research Administration, Box 1929, 169 Angell Street, Providence, RI 02912. The NLM recognizes the value of providing increased access to the biomedical literature by improving access to reports of randomized and controlled clinical trials. The Cochrane Collaboration has been working for several years with the NLM and the Office of Medical Applications of Research, Office of Director, National Institutes of Health, through a series of MEDLINE enhancement projects to identify and tag published Reports of Randomized (RCTs) and Controlled Clinical Trials (CCTs) from both MEDLINE and non-MEDLINE journals. The Cochrane Collaboration designated the New England Cochrane Center (NECC) to be their coordinator for continuing this important work. This procurement expands the NECC's work in coordinating this worldwide effort to identify RCTs and CCTs published in the biomedical literature and continues the ongoing development of an International Register of RCTs of Health Care as a virtual register@ of published trials, available to the general public through MEDLINE. The National Library of Medicine has identified the New England Cochrane Center as the only organization qualified to provide the requirements of this project. The New England Cochrane Center has a long term involvement with research related to the establishment of clinical trial registries. Recent research has included topics such as the optimal design of MEDLINE search strategies and comparison of hand searching versus electronic searching for the identification of randomized and controlled clinical trials. In addition, the NECC continues to play an integral role in the development of clinical trial registries such as the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions' Sexually Transmitted Disease Registry, a collection of Child Health Trials, and the International Registry of Vision Trials. The NECC and the contributing members of the Cochrane Collaboration are the only organizations undertaking the systematic work of identifying published reports of RCTs and CCTs. The NECC is the designated coordinating center for the Cochrane Collaboration members regarding their biomedical literature activities. The NECC is therefore uniquely qualified to provide expert advice to NLM regarding published randomized and controlled clinical trials in the shortest possible time frame and at the least cost. The proposed acquisition will be procured under FAR Part 13 -- Simplified Acquisitions. This notice of intent is not a Request for Quotations (RFQ), nor is an RFQ available, however, all responsible sources may submit a proposal which will be considered by the NIH. Firms interested in responding to this notice must be able to provide professional services as stated above. Responses should sufficiently demonstrate the firm's ability to meet the government's requirements. Responses are required within fifteen (15) calendar days from the publication date of this notice. NLM synopsis No. NLM 00-107/UHP. Inquires regarding this procurement may be made to Uyen H. Phuong, Lead Purchasing Agent, NLM on (301) 496-6127. Posted 04/13/00 (W-SN444536). (0104)

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