HHS Plans to Delete 20 Years of Critical Medical Guidelines Next Week

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Richard Forno <rforno () infowarrior org>
> Date: July 16, 2018 at 11:24:18 GMT+9
> To: Infowarrior List <infowarrior () attrition org>
> Cc: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: HHS Plans to Delete 20 Years of Critical Medical Guidelines Next Week
>
> HHS Plans to Delete 20 Years of Critical Medical Guidelines Next Week
>
> Experts say the database of carefully curated medical guidelines is one of a kind, used constantly by medical 
> professionals, and on July 16 will ‘go dark’ due to budget cuts.
>
> Jon Campbell
> 07.12.18 5:11 AM ET
>
> The Trump Administration is planning to eliminate a vast trove of medical guidelines that for nearly 20 years has 
> been a critical resource for doctors, researchers and others in the medical community.
>
> Maintained by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality [AHRQ], part of the Department of Health and Human 
> Services, the database is known as the National Guideline Clearinghouse [NGC], and it’s scheduled to “go dark,” in 
> the words of an official there, on July 16.
>
> Medical guidelines like those compiled by AHRQ aren’t something laypeople spend much time thinking about, but experts 
> like Valerie King, a professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Director of Research at the Center for 
> Evidence-based Policy at Oregon Health & Science University, said the NGC is perhaps the most important repository of 
> evidence-based research available.
>
> “Guideline.gov was our go-to source, and there is nothing else like it in the world,” King said, referring to the URL 
> at which the database is hosted, which the agency says receives about 200,000 visitors per month. “It is a singular 
> resource,” King added.
>
> Medical guidelines are best thought of as cheatsheets for the medical field, compiling the latest research in an 
> easy-to use format. When doctors want to know when they should start insulin treatments, or how best to manage an HIV 
> patient in unstable housing — even something as mundane as when to start an older patient on a vitamin D supplement — 
> they look for the relevant guidelines. The documents are published by a myriad of professional and other 
> organizations, and NGC has long been considered among the most comprehensive and reliable repositories in the world.
>
> AHRQ said it’s looking for a partner that can carry on the work of NGC, but that effort hasn’t panned out yet.
>
> “AHRQ agrees that guidelines play an important role in clinical decision making, but hard decisions had to be made 
> about how to use the resources at our disposal,” said AHRQ spokesperson Alison Hunt in an email. The operating budget 
> for the NGC last year was $1.2 million, Hunt said, and reductions in funding forced the agency’s hand.
>
> < - >
>
> https://www.thedailybeast.com/hhs-plans-to-delete-20-years-of-critical-medical-guidelines-next-week



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