SNOMED CT AND RELATED SERVICES

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) intends to negotiate on a sole source basis under the authority of FAR 6.302-1, Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, to the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (trading as SNOMED International), c/o 1 Kingdom Street, Paddington Central, London, W2 6BD, United Kingdom to renew the USA's rights to use and distribute the international release of SNOMED CT, conferred by membership in the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation (IHTSDO). SNOMED CT is a comprehensive, multi-axial, controlled terminology suitable for use in patient, public health, and health research data and it is one of the vocabularies included in the National Library of Medicine's Unified Medical Language System Metathesaurus. SNOMED CT is a proprietary product originally owned by the College of American Pathologists, which developed successive versions of the terminology over 35 years. In April 2007, the International Health Terminology Standards Development Organisation acquired the intellectual property rights to SNOMED CT and all previous versions of the terminology from the College of American Pathologists. Over a period of years, various U.S. federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Department of Defense, and the Veterans Administration, determined that SNOMED CT can assist in improving the quality of patient, public health, and health research data that Federal agencies create, collect, exchange, or analyze, both within the Federal government and in conjunction with state and local governments or private organizations. The National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, a Federal advisory committee with responsibility for advising the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on matters related to health data, recommended SNOMED CT as one of a "core set" of U.S. standards for collecting and exchanging patient medical record information. SNOMED CT was subsequently selected as a standard for the electronic exchange of clinical health information under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, part of the American Recovery and Revitalization Act. Most recently, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), as required by the 21st Century Cures Act, established the International Standards Advisory (ISA) and the US Core Data for Interoperability (USCDI). Both ISA and USCDI identify SNOMED CT as a core standard. Additionally, SNOMED CT has been chosen as the standard for selected data elements in international genetic information resources, including a Genetic Testing Registry and database of clinically significant human variations under development at NIH. It is also being used in an increasing number of clinical research studies. The period of performance shall be one year from date of award with four (4) additional one-year option periods.