Republicans Bow To Industry Pressure, Shut Down Vital Healthcare Resource

[turbinetree]

Big Pharma Beneficiaries Delete Storehouse of Medical Guidelines

By Jonathan Larsen, TYT Investigates

America’s federal database of medical treatment guidelines—a resource for doctors, hospitals and patients for more than two decades—will be dead on Tuesday (July 17). The National Guideline Clearinghouse website at Guidelines.gov was shut down by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, it said, because “Federal funding through AHRQ will no longer be available to support the NGC.”

Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), chair of the House Appropriations Committee until the beginning of last year, had targeted the agency for elimination even after doctors warned him not to kill Guidelines.gov. As TYT reported on Sunday, Rogers doubled the number of health-industry companies in which he invested last year.

The White House also pitched killing the research agency. Under new Appropriations Chairman Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), the agency was spared last year, but the Guidelines.gov budget was slashed from $2.1 million to $1.2 million.

The national guidelines have been a target for Republicans since the 1990s, when back surgeons balked at guidelines favoring nonsurgical alternatives for treating back pain. And big healthcare companies have billions of dollars at stake in which guidelines are used by consumers. An estimated 200,000 visitors turned to Guidelines.gov each month. For decades, the federal guidelines have had something of a monopoly. As of Tuesday, that will no longer be the case.

And the healthcare industry has shown a willingness to shade medical guidelines to its benefit.

https://www.dcreport.org/2018/07/16/republicans-bow-to-industry-pressure-shut-down-vital-healthcare-resource/

[bdamomma]

1. this was the response I got when I sent an e mail.

Good afternoon,

Thank you for your email about the closing of NGC/guideline.gov and the value it has had to your work. The difficult decision to not continue to fund NGC was an Agency decision based on strategic priorities and lack of funds to continue the contract that supports the operations of NGC. However, the Agency knows that many individuals and organizations have built routines and processes around the presence of NGC, so we are exploring a path(s) to sustain NGC or some evolution of NGC and will continue to do so even after the site is offline. This decision does not suggest lack of endorsement of these guidelines.

Regards,
Francis

Francis D. Chesley, Jr., M.D.
Acting Deputy Director
Director, Office of Extramural Research, Education, and Priority Populations
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
5600 Fishers Lane, Room 06N16
Rockville, MD 20857
office: [phone]
e-mail: [e-mail]

[turbinetree]

2. She said nothing......................she gave no word on how people can find out

to stop this.................I am not a guinea pig...................

Thank you for what you did....................

[pansypoo53219]

3. TAX CUTS! WHEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!