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Yes, NGC provides a Link Conversion Table that identifies the old NGC Guideline Number and URL, along with the new Document Number and URL. Titles for each guideline summary are also provided. This table provides the information required for users to globally change all existing NGC summary links with links to the new NGC site.
Please also note that NGC is currently redirecting users who are accessing the site through an old bookmark and/or favorite to a guideline summary.
The majority of guidelines produced by AHRQ are no longer included in NGC. These documents do not meet one of NGC's minimal inclusion criteria that require that all guidelines included in the National Guideline Clearinghouse™ (NGC™) Web site be considered current within the last 5 years. (AHRQ considers these guidelines, either in whole or part, to be out of date.)
Users should consider searching the National Library of Medicine's Health Services/Technology Assessment Text (HSTAT) database at http://hstat.nlm.nih.gov/hq/Hquest -- current and archived AHRQ guidelines can be accessed via this site.
Additional information regarding the availability of AHRQ guidelines can be found in the AHRQ Publications Catalog or under the Clinical Practice Guidelines section of the AHRQ Web site.
Users can also refer to the Guideline Summary Archive for more information.
Please refer to the Guideline Summary Archive for more information. This feature provides a complete list of NGC Guideline Summaries (with NGC accession numbers) that have been withdrawn from the NGC Web site. Information regarding a current NGC Summary, where available, is provided. The listing is organized alphabetically, by organization name.
NGC is not able to directly fulfill orders for printed copies of the guidelines. However, users can find out more information, including whether there is a copy of the full-text guideline available via the Web, by viewing the NGC Guideline Summary for any particular guideline. General information regarding availability of the guideline can be found in a field labeled "Guideline Availability" which is found towards the end of each Guideline Summary. Links to full-text, where available, can also be found in this field.
There are no copyright restrictions on the Guideline Summaries and/or Syntheses contained within the NGC database, provided that all content is appropriately cited. For example, each Guideline Summary must be clearly identified as originating from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's National Guideline Clearinghouse™.
With regard to the original full text guidelines for which the summaries are based, please note that NGC seeks and receives permission from each guideline developer whose guidelines appear at www.guideline.gov. Consequently, NGC does not have the authority to grant copyright clearance for the original full text guidelines included in NGC. Users must contact the guideline developer individually with such requests.
An important component of both the Brief and Complete summary of each guideline contained in NGC is the guideline developer defined "Copyright Statement." Users will find complete information regarding copyright restrictions as specified by the individual guideline developers in this field.
A new feature of the NGC Web site, as of September 2003, is the ability to download the Complete Summary of all NGC summaries for use with a handheld computer (PDA/Palm devices). Users will find this download option listed in the "Summary" box on the left at the top of both the Brief and Complete Summary pages.
In addition, some guideline developers also provide PDA/Palm downloadable versions of their guideline recommendations. If such a version of the guideline is available, you will find details about the guide and how to obtain it in the "Companion Documents" field. The "Companion Documents" field is located towards the end of the Brief and Complete NGC Summary. See also NGC's PDA/Palm page, available through NGC Resources, for a list of guidelines available for download through the guideline developer.
The suggested citation format for an NGC Guideline Summary is:
The suggested citation format for an NGC Guideline Synthesis is:
Suggested citation formats for individual NGC Guideline Syntheses appear at the end of these documents.
If you are citing the original guidelines upon which the NGC Summaries or NGC Syntheses are based, please refer to the "SOURCE" field included in each NGC Guideline Summary or the sources listed under the section labeled "Guidelines" found at the top of each NGC Guideline Synthesis.
NGC welcomes appropriate Web sites to establish links from their pages to www.guideline.gov. For more information, see the Linking to NGC page.
NGC is designed to support printing of tables that are equal in width to the size of standard paper (e.g., 11 inches).
Usually when a person has printing problems, the source of the problem lies with the local setup of the computer, the user's LAN and/or the way that the user's network administrator has configured the services available to his/her account.
NGC also cautions users to limit the total number of guidelines included in any one NGC Tabular Guideline Comparison to no more than 3 or 4, for optimal printing. Because HTML is primarily a display output, it may be possible to view complex NGC Guideline Comparisons containing more than four guidelines; however, printing is still limited to within the size of standard paper.
Some general tips if a user is still having trouble printing:
If printing problems persist, NGC recommends that users contact their network administrator to try and resolve the printing problems.
The "Hide Menu" and "Show Menu" features located at the top of the page are designed to let users minimize and maximize the menus as needed. We recommend that users use the "Hide Menu" feature when viewing the guideline summaries and other views in NGC, in order to avoid having to scroll the display to the right to see the complete view.
The NGC Detailed Search feature allows users to limit their search of the NGC database by the following guideline methodology components:
No. In the Basic Search mode, NGC searches the contents of the Complete Summary. In the Detailed Search mode, NGC searches the specific field in the database corresponding to the criteria a user enters or selects. This is done to improve the relevance (precision) of the search results.
No, NGC searches do not recognize the difference between upper and lower case letters.
It is possible that a search may not find any guidelines matching the criteria specified. This can happen for several reasons:
NGC recommends using the current versions of Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. View our Compatible Browsers page for a full list of browsers tested with NGC.
Clicking on the NGC logo, located in the top left corner of the banner, will link back to the NGC Home Page. There is also a text link labeled "Home" at the bottom of each page.
As NGC is an Internet resource, it is appropriate to list the contact information to include the NGC Web address, http://www.guideline.gov and the general e-mail, info@guideline.gov, rather than a mailing address, telephone and fax number. For more information, please see the Contact NGC page.
You can register for the NGC Update E-mail Service to receive notices of weekly additions and updates posted to the Web site. Go to the NGC Subscription page to register for this service.
You can also manage your own subscription (change your e-mail address or unsubscribe from the service) using the NGC Subscription page. Enter the e-mail address that you wish to subscribe or unsubscribe, and click on the "Get subscriptions for this e-mail address."
This page also allows users to choose the format (HTML or Text) of the e-mail that they receive.
NGC uses a systematic approach to decide when it is appropriate to include author, year citations in the "Major Recommendations" field and full citations in the "References Supporting the Recommendations" field. Two criteria drive the decision-making process: (1) the recommendations are explicitly stated, and (2) those explicit statements are referenced. The first criterion means the recommendations in the guideline document are easily identified, stand-alone, action-oriented statements. Explicit recommendation statements are not interspersed among rationale in the guideline document. Rationale for the recommendations may be provided in sections before or after the actual recommendations but not within the same body of content as the recommendations. The second criterion means that the reference(s) supporting the explicit recommendation is(are) provided at the end of the statement. References cited in the rationale for the recommendation are not captured.
NGC will not display a field when the guideline document lacks content relevant to that field.
NGC thought you would want to choose when to view and/or print the list of citations. Some of the summaries contain hundreds of citations.
Technically, Primary Care is not a clinical specialty or subspecialty. NGC chose to exclude it from the controlled vocabulary list. Clinical subspecialties, like Maternal-Fetal Medicine, were excluded from the controlled vocabulary list because NGC opted to lump subspecialties into the parent specialty; in the example Maternal-Fetal Medicine, the parent specialty is Obstetrics and Gynecology. Using the main clinical specialties, instead of the main specialties along with the subspecialties, reduces variability in abstraction and review.
NGC users can find Primary Care guidelines by performing a keyword search.
We are continuing the build the NGC FAQ. If you have any suggestions or comments, please email us at info@guideline.gov.
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© 1998-2004 National Guideline Clearinghouse
Date Modified: 10/18/2004
