SPECIAL NOTICE
99 -- RSNA-NIBIB RADLEX ONTOLOGY PROJECT
- Notice Date
- 7/11/2008
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- NAICS
- 541690
— Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Rockledge Dr. Bethesda, MD, Office of Acquisitions, 6701 Rockledge Dr RKL2/6100 MSC 7902, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892-7902
- ZIP Code
- 20892-7902
- Solicitation Number
- NHLBI-PB-BB-2008-158-RCO
- Archive Date
- 9/9/2008
- Point of Contact
- Rosie C Owens,, Phone: (301) 435-7920, Chris Belt,, Phone: 301.435.6672
- E-Mail Address
-
rowens@mail.nih.gov, cbelt@nhlbi.nih.gov
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (NIH), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), Office of Acquisition (OA), for the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) intends to negotiate and award a contract on a sole source noncompetitive basis to the Radiological Society of North America, 820 Jorie Boulevard, Oak Brook, IL 60523-2251, for continuous effort developing of the RadLex Ontology, a medical imaging web-based information resource. Background / Objectives / Scope of Work The purpose of the RadLex project is to unify terms and concepts for indexing and retrieving a variety of imaging information sources, such as imaging research databases, educational materials, and clinical imaging reports. RadLex is sponsored by the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), which has enlisted the collaboration of 26 other radiology professional and standards organizations, including the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the Digital Imaging and Communications (DICOM) standards committee of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), to develop a comprehensive radiology lexicon. This requirement supports Phase II of the project, which continues the development of the RadLex Ontology, a rich knowledge base of interconnected radiology concepts from the list of RadLex terms created by the relevant RadLex subspecialty committees. When complete, the RadLex Ontology will be capable of describing all the salient aspects of an imaging examination, including modality, technique, visual features, anatomy, findings, and pathology. The RadLex Ontology will be available for use by a wide variety of software tools and web-based information resources, including RSNA’s Medical Image Resource Center (MIRC) and the National Cancer Institute’s cancer biomedical informatics grid (caBIG) project. Imaging researchers have traditionally used ad hoc methods to organize their film-based image libraries. Now that it is possible to store biomedical images on line in digital form, there is a pressing need for a unified, organized source of concepts and terms to index and search these databases. A well-indexed online biomedical image database becomes a sustainable resource that investigators can use to find the biomedical images they need for subsequent research. The most likely candidates for such a source of imaging concepts and terms would be general medical terminologies. However, the most complete terminology systems for general medicine, such as SNOMED-CT (College of American Pathologists, Northfield, Illinois), are missing terms for up to 50 percent of the concepts found in radiology reports [2, 3]. Initial work on the RadLex project has shown that between 10 and 30 percent of RadLex anatomic terms are not contained in SNOMED-CT (unpublished data). Because no existing terminology provides a complete set of terms and concepts to index biomedical images, it remains difficult to retrieve images based on their biomedical content. Instead, the retrieval of biomedical image subsets from research databases often requires manual search through associated radiology reports, case report forms, or the images themselves, in order to obtain image sets that can be re-used by researchers. In addition, a Procedures and Protocols, or “Playbook” project committee has begun working on terms to describe the devices, procedures, and systematic protocols that are used to acquire and process biomedical images. Imaging researchers have normally used the ACR Index (American College of Radiology) or ad hoc methods to organize their film-based image libraries. However, the ACR Index embeds semantics in its numeric identifiers, and contains only a few thousand terms—appropriate for a manually administered image archive, but insufficient for online image repositories that can be indexed and searched automatically by investigators. Unlike the ACR Index, RadLex is designed for use in software applications. RadLex also will unify and supplement imaging terms in other lexicons, such as SNOMED-CT (College of American Pathologists, Northfield, Illinois), the Unified Medical Language System (National Library of Medicine, Bethesda, Maryland), and DICOM (National Electrical Manufacturers Association, Rosslyn, Virginia). The resulting lexicon will be freely available on the Internet with cross references to these other lexicons and standards. This project provides support for the continuing RSNA-NIBIB RadLex Ontology Project, the goal of which is to create a rich ontology for medical imaging research. Achievement of the following specific goals will be the final result of work on this project: 1)A rich ontology of relevant organ system domain concepts, freely available as comma separated variable (CSV), ontology web language (OWL), and Protégé files 2)Documentation of the structure and content of the ontology 3)Linkage from concepts in the RadLex ontology to SNOMED-CT concepts, UMLS unique identifiers, and terms in the ACR Index 4)A documented, reproducible methodology for converting imaging term lists to rich ontologies 5)Software that demonstrates the ability to: a)assign concepts from the RadLex ontology as image meta-data in research databases, and b)retrieves images from research databases using queries based on image meta-data. As an independent contractor and not as a Government employee or representative, the RSNA will perform the following tasks in support of this project. These tasks are representative of work RSNA has performed in similar lexicon development pilot projects and may change as the RSNA-NIBIB project develops. The need for changes and modifications will be discussed by RSNA in the periodic reports described below (Management Plan/Deliverables). During the performance of this contract, the domains to be converted to the RadLex ontology include but are not limited to neuroradiology, cardiovascular, abdominal, pediatric, and thoracic. Other organ system domains may be identified for development in lieu of or in addition to those in this initial plan, as directed by the Project Officer, based on a change of scientific direction or a shift in priorities. 1) Enhancement of conversion software- Existing software developed during the pilot project will continue to be evaluated, improved and refined during the current project. 2) Design of information mode; 3) Ontology creation and synthesis; 4) Review and revision by clinical experts; 5) Harmonization and linkage with related terminologies; and 6) Dissemination. Following the completion of the RadLex Procedures and Protocols term ontology, RadLex will be aggressively promoted to RSNA members at the RSNA annual. The reference number for this notice is NHLBI-PB (BB)-2008-158-RCO. The resultant acquisition will be conducted in accordance with FAR Part 15, Contracting by Negotiation and the resultant contract will include all applicable provisions and clauses in effect through the Federal Acquisition Circular 05-26 (June 12, 2008). The period of performance is for a twelve (12) month base year, plus four (4) twelve (12) month option years from the date of award. The intended procurement will be classified under North American Classification System (NAICS) code applicable to this requirement is 541690 and the associated small business size standard is $ 6.5 Million. Through the acceptance of an unsolicited proposal submitted by the Radiological Society of North America was awarded a contract to conduct a pilot project titled as RSNA-NIBIB RadLex Ontology Pilot Project (RFP 1406-04-06 RP-63438) by The Department of the Interior National Business Center, through GovWorks, Federal Acquisition Center from 2006-2007. The pilot project was successfully completed, and the pilot RadLex Ontology was widely disseminated and adopted. In order to maintain the continuity of the methodologies gained through the award resulting from the acceptance of the unsolicited proposal for storing/retrieving biomedical images on-line in digital form, an award to any other source for this follow-on contract would result in a substantial duplication of cost to the Government, which could not be recovered through competition. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals. The resulting acquisition will be entered into pursuant to the acquisition authority set forth in FAR 6.302-1 and 41 U.S.C. 253(c) (1) and HHSAR 306-302-1. Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements. Interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to the requirement or submit proposals. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive proposals. However, all proposals received within 45 days after publication of this synopsis will be considered by the Government. Responses to this notice will be reviewed in accordance with the following criteria: (1) Understanding of the Requirement and Technical Approach; (2) Qualifications and Availability of Personnel; (3) Management Plan; (4) Past Performance. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement.
- Web Link
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- Place of Performance
- Address: Bethesda MD, BETHESDA, Maryland, 20892, United States
- Zip Code: 20892
- Record
- SN01612228-W 20080713/080711221229-e4c5be4adb00040a37b531107fc3f840 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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