"My NGC" and "My NQMC" Personalization Features Added to AHRQ's National Guideline and Quality Measures Websites

Revamped websites make it simple for visitors to view their recent searches and sign up for customized alerts on clinical guidelines and quality measures

PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa., Aug. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Two prominent healthcare websites with more than 3.2 million annual visits, National Guideline Clearinghouse™ (NGC™) and National Quality Measures Clearinghouse™ (NQMC™), are now easier to use with the launch of customized personalization tools, announces ECRI Institute, an independent nonprofit organization that developed and maintains the sites under contract to the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

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The new "My NGC" and "My NQMC" personalization features, developed for AHRQ by ECRI Institute and its technology subcontractor, Silverchair Information Systems, have been designed to accommodate visitors' specific interests with enhanced search functionality and targeted access to evidence-based clinical guidelines and quality measures.

Through free registration on www.guideline.gov and www.qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov, visitors can now easily access their recently viewed summaries and searches, save favorite guideline summaries or quality measures, and sign up to receive custom e-mail alerts on favorite topics, guidelines and/or measures, and organizations.

"In this era of health reform, accountable care organizations, electronic health records, and smart technology, there's an expectation that healthcare information be current and easy to access based on personal preferences," says Vivian Coates, a vice president at ECRI Institute, and project director for the ECRI contract to create and maintain the AHRQ Clearinghouses. "The new 'My NGC' and 'My NQMC' personalization tools make it easier for busy clinicians, informatics researchers, patients, and consumers to stay up to date on the frequent changes with clinical guidelines and quality measures."

"These new features greatly enhance NGC and NQMC and give AHRQ's users easier access to the rich content that has developed in these resources since their inception," says Jean Slutsky, director of AHRQ's Center for Outcomes and Evidence.

The National Guideline Clearinghouse website was launched in 1997 and currently receives more than 3 million visits per year. It contains summaries of 2,500 current evidence-based clinical practice guidelines from more than 200 guideline-developing organizations. Launched in 2001, the National Quality Measures Clearinghouse website summarizes 2,100 evidence-based quality measures from 53 measure-developing organizations and currently generates 200,000 annual visits.

The two related websites use key vocabulary standards including ECRI Institute's Universal Medical Device Nomenclature System™, the National Library of Medicine's Medical Subject Headings, and ICD-9-CM and SNOMED CT codes.

For more information, visit www.ecri.org or contact ECRI Institute by mail at 5200 Butler Pike, Plymouth Meeting, PA 19462-1298, USA; by telephone at +1 (610) 825-6000; by fax at +1 (610) 834-1275; or by e-mail at [email protected].

About ECRI Institute
ECRI Institute (www.ecri.org), a nonprofit organization, dedicates itself to bringing the discipline of applied scientific research to healthcare to discover which medical procedures, devices, drugs, and processes are best to enable improved patient care. As pioneers in this science for nearly 45 years, ECRI Institute marries experience and independence with the objectivity of evidence-based research. Strict conflict-of-interest guidelines ensure objectivity. ECRI Institute is designated an Evidence-based Practice Center by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. ECRI Institute PSO, listed as a federally certified Patient Safety Organization by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, strives to achieve the highest levels of safety and quality in healthcare by collecting and analyzing patient safety information and sharing lessons learned and best practices.

SOURCE ECRI Institute