Searching for Guidelines

Searching for practice guidelines is much easier when you use the National Guideline Clearinghouse.

This comprehensive database of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines and related documents is an initiative of the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality (AHRQ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The mission of NGC is to "provide physicians, nurses, and other health professionals, health care providers, health plans, integrated delivery systems, purchasers and others an accessible mechanism for obtaining objective, detailed information on clinical practice guidelines and to further their dissemination, implementation and use."

Key Features

Search
There are three ways to search NGC. The first is the basic search box that appears on every page; the second is the detailed search allows you to create very specific search queries based on various attributes such as target population; and the third, frequently requested searches, is designed to assist NGC users in finding guidelines related to frequently requested search topics.
Browse
This handy feature allows users to scan for guidelines available on the NGC site by disease/condition, treatment/intervention, or developing organization.
Compare
This unique feature provides you with the ability to generate side-by-side comparisons for any combination of two or more guidelines. You can also look at syntheses of selected guidelines that cover similar topic areas.
Resources
NGC has compiled a lengthy list of resources including annotated bibliographies, discussion list, FAQs, patient resources, PDA downloads, guideline archives, etc.

Keep this resource in mind when you are looking for clinical guidelines...it will save you time.