Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education

The National Institutes of Health, Clinical Center is conducting a market survey/sources sought to help determine the availability and technical capability of qualified small businesses, veteran-owned small businesses, service disabled veteran-owned small businesses and/or HUBZONE small business capable of serving the needs mentioned below. This market survey/sources sought announcement is not a request for proposals and the Government is not committed to award a contract pursuant to this announcement. The information from this market research is for planning purposes only and will assist the Government in planning its acquisition strategy. This is strictly market research and the Government will not entertain questions concerning this market research. The Government will not pay for any costs incurred in the preparation of information for responding to this market survey. The NIH Clinical Center is the sponsoring institution at the National Institutes of Health responsive for the administrative support and oversight of graduate medical education programs designed to train physicians, recruited through a competitive nation-wide search process, in a total of 18 nationally recognized medical/surgical specialties. These graduate medical education programs provide prescribed certification as specialists in a recognized medical or surgical field by the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS), a national organization that has established a process for verifying the competence of individual physicians in such recognized medical or surgical specialty fields. However, the prescribed standards and program structure required for the training for physician in a given medical or surgical specialty field are developed and verified, both for training programs and institutions which sponsor those training programs, through a national process of accreditation established by another organization, the Accreditation council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), located in Chicago, Illinois Graduate medical education training programs and those institutions that sponsor medical or surgical training programs in a recognized specialty field, such as the NIH Clinical Center, are expected to be accredited by the ACGME in order to permit training program graduates to be certified by the ABMS. It should be noted that those graduate medical education programs and sponsoring institutions that are not accredited by the ACGME are not recognized as providing required training that permits physicians to be certified as medical or surgical specialist by the ABMS. Thus, physicians who complete specialty training in non-ACGME accredited programs, with rare exception, are not eligible for certification by the ABMS, and are not considered bona fide medical or surgical specialist by health care delivery organizations, medical schools, and academic medical centers throughout the United States. This notice is a market survey and is for information and planning purposes only and does not commit the Government to any contractual agreement. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS. The Government will not award a Purchase Order or Contract based upon vendor responses to this announcement. The Government shall not assume any costs for preparing or submitting any information in response to the market survey or the Government's use of the information. Any proprietary information should be clearly identified as "proprietary information". Vendors must send written capability responses by demonstrating an equivalent program by December 6, 2012, 3:00 PM EST to the Contract Specialist at the following e-mail address William.Etti@nih.gov.