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Republican-led Health Department Ends Website With Critical Medical Guidelines
In February, Tom Price was confirmed as the Secretary of Health and Human Services in an overnight vote. His sole purpose was to take healthcare away from the sick, elderly, and poor to the extent possible. Fortunately, that effort has mostly failed (so far) thanks to incredible efforts from millions of concerned citizens. In October, Price was out after cheating taxpayers millions of dollars.
In mid-November, Trump has nominated a replacement, Alex Azar, who was later confirmed. Azar is uniquely qualified to destroy our healthcare system. Azar is a career lobbyist and bureaucrat who, despite having no healthcare experience or interactions with patients, knows how to get things done politically.
Azar has done just that during 2018.
The Trump Administration eliminate[d] 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], went dark on July 16.
THIS IS A WEBSITE FUNDED BY OUR GOVERNMENT THAT AGGREGATED THE BEST MEDICAL CARE INFORMATION FOR DECADES TO BENEFIT EVERY SINGLE PERSON IN OUR COUNTRY. REPUBLICANS ENDED FUNDING FOR IT. IT'S GONE NOW.
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.
NGC is perhaps the most important repository of evidence-based research available.
Not even an archived version of the site will remain, according to an official at AHRQ. Some of the NGC’s pages are preserved in a third party archive, but no comprehensive backup of the site’s contents or search functions exists.
According to a post on that web site, funding has been eliminated by Republican leadership.
Funding to support AHRQ's National Guideline Clearinghouse (NGC) ended on July 16, 2018.
The NGC was originally created in 1998 by AHRQ in partnership with the American Medical Association and the American Association of Health Plans (now America's Health Insurance Plans). This partnership ended in 2002. The contract that supports the NGC ends this month and funds are not available to continue support for the NGC.
AHRQ's decision to close the NGC has elicited significant feedback from the health care field, and the Agency appreciates the passionate support that users have expressed. AHRQ is exploring options to support the NGC in the future and will continue to do so even while the site remains offline.
Sources:
https://www.ahrq.gov/gam/updates/index.html
https://www.thedailybeast.com/hhs-plans-to-delete-20-years-of-critical-medical-guidelines-next-week