About NGC and NQMC
This resource, Guidelines and Measures, was set up by AHRQ to provide users a place to find information about its legacy guidelines and measures clearinghouses, National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC) and National Quality Measures Clearinghouse (NQMC). This information was previously available on guideline.gov and qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov, respectively. Both sites were taken down on July 16, 2018 because federal funding though AHRQ was no longer available to support them.
National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC)
NGC was an initiative of AHRQ, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NGC was originally created in 1997 by AHRQ in partnership with the American Medical Association and the American Association of Health Plans (now America’s Health Insurance Plans [AHIP]). In January 1999, the database-driven Web site was made available to the public and it was maintained and improved by AHRQ for nearly twenty years.
The NGC mission was to provide physicians and other health care 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.
National Quality Measures Clearinghouse (NQMC)
NQMC was an initiative of AHRQ, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In January 2001, the database-driven, sister resource to NGC was made available to the public and it was maintained and improved by AHRQ for more than seventeen years.
The NQMC mission was to provide practitioners, health care providers, health plans, integrated delivery systems, purchasers and others an accessible mechanism for obtaining detailed information on quality measures, and to further their dissemination, implementation, and use in order to inform health care decisions. NQMC built on AHRQ's previous initiatives in quality measurement, including the Computerized Needs-Oriented Quality Measurement Evaluation System (CONQUEST), the Expansion of Quality of Care Measures (Q-SPAN) project, the Quality Measurement Network (QMNet) project, and the Performance Measures Inventory (PMI).
