National Institute of Standards and Technology, Bldg. 101, Rm. A430, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-0001

A -- PUBLIC MEETING SOL Q- POC Customer Representative 1-800-287-3863 Department of Commerce Technology Administration National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Bldg. 101, Rm. A430, Gaithersburg, MD, March 29, 1995. REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS AND NOTICE OF PUBLIC MEETING: The NIST Advanced Technology Program (ATP) is soliciting second-round proposals under its focused program competition, Information Infrastructure for Healthcare (95-10) and announces a public meeting (Proposers' Conference) for all interested parties. An estimated $20 million in ATP funding is available for the first year of this focused program competition 95-10. The ATP reserves the right to utilize for this competition more or less funding than the amount stated above, depending on the quality of the proposals received. The actual number of proposals funded will depend on the quality of the proposals received and the amount of funding requested in the highest ranked proposals. Outyear funding is contingent on the approval of future Congressional appropriations and satisfactory program performance. This is the second of three competitions planned for this ATP focused program. Announcement of one additional competition is planned for approximately one year from now. Award recipients will be required to share non-proprietary information at workshops which will be held throughout the duration of the program. The ATP operates under program procedures published at Part 295, Title 15, of the Code of Federal Regulations. The ATP Proposal Preparation Kit dated November 1994 (containing proposal cover sheets, other required forms, background material, and instructions for submission of proposals) and the focused program paper entitled ''Information Infrastructure for Healthcare, Supplemental Information Program Competition 95-10,'' may be obtained by phone (1-800-ATP-FUND), fax (301-926-9524), e-mail (atp@micf.nist.gov), or written request at the address shown below. Only FULL proposals are being solicited under this focused program competition 95-10. Abbreviated/pre-proposals WILL NOT be accepted. Proposals submitted by facsimile or electronic mail WILL NOT be accepted. If a proposer's proposal is judged to be of high enough quality to be invited in for an oral review, ATP reserves the right to submit a list of questions to the proposer that must be addressed at the oral review. The due date for submission of full proposals is 3 p.m. Eastern time on Wednesday, June 28, 1995. Should the NIST facility be closed on the specified due date, ATP proposals will be due at 3 p.m. Easterm time on the next business day that the NIST facility is open. Proposals received after this deadline WILL NOT be considered. Decisions on the awards for this competition should be made approximately three months after the due date for submission of full proposals. Send proposals to: Advanced Technology Program, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Administration Bldg. 101, Rm. A430, Quince Orchard & Clopper Roads, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-0001. Mark envelope Focused Program 95-10. The goal of the Information Infrastructure for Healthcare focused program is to develop critical information infrastructure technologies to enable enhanced, more fully integrated medical information systems across the healthcare industry, greatly reducing costs and errors in handling medical information. Specific technical goals are to establish the technologies for: reliable storage and retrieval of complex medical information for varied applications; real-time data driven medical decisions; real-time data entry by mobile medical personnel; real-time global transport of complex medical records with accuracy, speed, and security; computer-based medical training, diagnostic, and reference tools. Business goals are to gain the capability to develop products that will: reduce unit healthcare costs; improve quality of healthcare with higher treatment success rates and avoidance of complications; capture global market share of new and improved products and services. This second solicitation (95-10) focuses on technologies and tools that will underlie and enable the development of applications for distributed, heterogeneous, multimedia-based healthcare systems. These technologies should provide user interface to, or efficiency enhancement of, the information infrastructure for healthcare. Proposed projects must fall into one or more of the following categories: (1) information access, transmission, storage, and retrieval technologies; (2) multimedia information technologies; (3) security and privacy technologies; (4) mobile and collaborative computing technologies. Examples of specific advanced technology research topics include, but are not limited to, human/computer interfaces, natural language processing and transcription, digital libraries, resource discovery, network security and privacy, image compression/decompression, and concurrent communications. Research proposed under this solicitation should be tailored to the requirements of the healthcare information infrastructure but should be applicable to other infrastructure domains as well. All relevant system requirements should be addressed, including elicitation of user requirements, data integration, interoperability, scalability, security and privacy, system performance, and ease of use. This solicitation will not accept proposals which differ in content and focus from the scope discussed above. Specifically excluded are projects whose sole or primary focus is (1) within the scope of the first ATP healthcare program competition (94-04); (2) healthcare-specific applications or technologies (to be addressed subsequently in the third solicitation); or (3) development of specialized medical equipment or technologies that do not pertain to the healthcare information infrastructure. A public meeting (Proposers' Conference) for potential proposers and other interested parties will be held from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. and 2-5 p.m. Eastern time on April 17, 1995, in the Red Auditorium at NIST, Administration Building 101, Quince Orchard and Clopper Roads, Gaithersburg, MD (exit I-270 at exit 10 northbound or exit 11B southbound). The morning session will provide an opportunity for attendees to ask questions on the scope and technical and business goals of this focused program, Information Infrastructure for Healthcare 95-10. The afternoon session will provide general information on the ATP and hints on preparing good proposals (covering the same material presented at previous ATP Proposers' Conferences). Attendance at this public meeting is not required. No registration fee will be charged. If NIST is closed for any reason on that day, the meeting will be rescheduled. A prerecorded message at 301-975- 6478 provides the status of NIST opening. To register for this public meeting or for further information, contact ATP, by phone: 1-800-ATP-FUND; fax: 301-926-9524; or e-mail: atp@micf.nist.gov. (0089)

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