Submit Guidelines

About NGC

History and Mission

NGC is an initiative of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NGC was originally created by AHRQ in partnership with the American Medical Association and the American Association of Health Plans (now America's Health Insurance Plans [AHIP]). NGC has been available as a public resource since December 1998.

NGC's mission is to provide physicians 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.

See the About page for additional information about this national initiative.

Who are our users?

Information available on the NGC Web site is intended primarily for the following audiences:

• Physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals and provider organizations
• Health plans, health systems, health care organizations, hospitals, and integrated health care delivery systems
• Medical specialty and professional societies
• Researchers
• Federal, State, and local government health care policymakers and specialists
• Employee benefit managers

Most NGC users report they use the Internet daily or almost daily to find health care-related information. The most common reason cited for using the NGC Web site is to find evidence-based clinical practice guidelines.

Benefits of Participation

Dissemination of Information

NGC reaches a large audience within the United States and abroad, offering developers an effective vehicle for the dissemination of guidelines that meet the NGC Inclusion Criteria. Guideline submissions are identified on the Guidelines In Progress page. When guideline summaries are published to the NGC Web site, they are announced in our New this Week.

Summary Usage Reports

Participating guideline developers are provided the benefit of receiving guideline summary usage reports (annually and by special request) that highlight the number of times (i.e., page views) that each of their guidelines was accessed on the NGC Web site during a specified period of time. This information is an indicator of dissemination of the published guideline(s) within the NGC audience.

Your Role as a Developer

What will you need to do?

The success of NGC depends on the active participation of contributing guideline developers. Your role as a participant is to:

• Provide current contact information for your organization
• Notify NGC when changes are made to your organization's guideline(s)
• Review the NGC guideline summary developed for your organization's guideline(s) for accuracy and completeness prior to posting to the NGC Web site
• Confirm currency of your organization's published guideline(s) and organization's contact information on an annual basis
• Provide necessary copyright (if applicable). NGC staff are available to assist you with this effort.

Note: For guidelines in the public domain, no copyright permission is required.

To facilitate submission of your/your organization's guidelines, we offer this guidance:

1. Download the Guidelines Submission Kit. This Kit includes various documents to assist you in the submission process. See Submission FAQs for examples of guideline documentation submitted to NGC from participating guideline developers.
2. Include the following in your Guideline Submission:
   • The guideline document and any supporting guideline documentation.
   • The name, address, telephone and fax numbers, and e-mail address of an appropriate contact person.
   • A completed Copyright Agreement Form (if applicable).
3. Prepare your submission using the following guides:
   • Review the Inclusion Criteria (available in the Guideline Submission Kit). Guideline submissions must meet all of the criteria in NGC's Inclusion Criteria.
   • Refer to the Guideline Submission Checklist (available in the Guideline Submission Kit) for guidance on how to prepare your submission. This checklist will assist you in providing the necessary information and/or documentation that is required by NGC.
   • Complete the Copyright Agreement Form (available in the Guideline Submission Kit). NGC must receive copyright permission to abstract and post the guideline summaries before your organization's guidelines can be included on the NGC Web site (unless the guidelines are in the public domain).
4. Your Guideline Submission can be submitted in one of two ways:
   • Electronic submissions (preferred). Requests to submit electronically should be sent to Vivian Coates, NGC/NQMC Project Director, at info@guideline.gov.
   • Two (2) paper copies of the guideline and its supporting documentation. Include a listing of the titles being submitted for consideration. Paper copy submissions should be sent to:

     Vivian Coates
     NGC/NQMC Project Director
     ECRI Institute
     5200 Butler Pike
     Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462

Questions regarding submissions can be directed to Ms. Coates at info@guideline.gov.

For Additional Information

Additional information regarding NGC is available from Mary Nix, Project Officer, Center for Outcomes and Evidence, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), e-mail: info@guideline.gov.

Are You Also a Measure Developer?

Visit our Sister Site, the National Quality Measures Clearinghouse (NQMC) , and submit your evidence-based quality measures and measure sets.

NGC provides two reference tools to assist in your submission; the Template of Guideline Attributes and the Glossary. The NGC Template of Guideline Attributes provides descriptions of each guideline attribute in a guideline summary. The NGC Glossary provides clarifying definitions and examples of terms used to describe common properties of evidence-based clinical practice guideline used in guideline summaries.

1. What are NGC's criteria for inclusion?
2. Are there copyright restrictions on the information accessed through the NGC Web site at www.guideline.gov?
3. What are examples of guideline documentation submitted to NGC?
4. How does NGC use the submitted guideline documentation?

1. What are NGC's criteria for inclusion?

   See the Inclusion Criteria page.

2. Are there copyright restrictions on the information accessed through the NGC Web site at www.guideline.gov?

   There are no copyright restrictions that prevent users from copying and/or distributing content found on NGC, provided that all content is appropriately identified. NGC's content (i.e., guideline summaries, guideline syntheses, and expert commentaries) is available for public use, and we encourage the distribution of our content, particularly for educational purposes. NGC content may not be used for commercial and/or product endorsement purposes.

   Although most of NGC's content is free of restrictions, exceptions occur where individual guideline developers have requested otherwise. Refer to the Copyright Statement field at the end of each summary to determine if whether such restrictions apply and if users need to contact the guideline developer.

   NGC seeks and receives permission from guideline developers to include summaries of the original full-text guidelines that appear at www.guideline.gov. NGC does not have the authority to grant copyright clearance for the original full-text guidelines upon which the summaries are based. If you are interested in using/distributing the original full-text guideline, you must contact the guideline developer.

3. What are examples of guideline documentation submitted to NGC?

   Guideline developers submit a variety of documents to NGC including the following:

   • Guideline documents/recommendations statements (published journal articles, unpublished documents, documents published electronically)
   • Technical manuals describing the developer's process for guideline development
   • Documents detailing the specific methodology for the guideline (evidence syntheses, systematic reviews, assessment reports)
   • Patient resources (fact sheets, patient versions of guideline recommendations, pamphlets/brochures)
   • Tools to assist in implementation (quick reference guides, PDA downloads, pocket guides, algorithms, order sets, chart documentation, slide sets, etc.)
   • Continuing Medical Education (CME) material
   • Other companion documents (background material, costing statements)
4. How does NGC use the submitted guideline documentation?

   This documentation is reviewed against the Inclusion Criteria and subsequently used to develop summaries of guidelines that meet these criteria.