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Creating your own search page

We have updated our search approach to enable external developers to build on both the National Guideline Clearinghouse™ (NGC) and National Quality Measures Clearinghouse™ (NQMC) search engines. Developers can create a HTML search form that collects user criteria on their own site and passes that data to the NGC or NQMC site to display the search results (figure 1).

figure 1: external site -> NGC/NQMC search results page -> NGC/NQMC summaries

A developer must use the following rules to create a form on their site to access the NGC/NQMC search.

  1. The form must use a "GET" method (as opposed to a "POST" method)

  2. The action of the form must be http://www.guideline.gov/search/searchresults.aspx

  3. The inputs "type" and "num" are required for the search to work. The value for type must be 5 and the value for num can be any integer greater than 0.
    Examples:
       <input type="hidden" id="type" name="type" value="5">
       <input type="hidden" id="num" name="num" value="20">

  4. Any combination of fields from the detailed search page can be used to narrow the search results.

  5. Any value in a list you want to pass as a default for filtering guidelines must be placed into an input field of type="hidden" with the same name as the list. The values for the input must be comma separated.

    Form Example:

    figure 2:
    sample Web search query submission form

    Here is the HTML of the form
    <form action="http://www.guideline.gov/search/searchresults.aspx" method="get" ID="Form1">
       <input type="hidden" name="type" value="5" id="type">
       <input type="hidden" name="num" value="20" id="num">
       <input type="hidden" name="lmaqs" value="714,715" id="lmaqs">
       <input type="hidden" name="lmaz" value="718,719,720,721,722,725,726" ID="lmaz">
       <input type="text" id="sx" name="sx">
       <br />
       <input type="submit">
       <br />
    </form>

    This example passes 2 hidden variables to filter on "Methods Used to Assess the Quality and Strength of the Evidence" and "Methods Used to Analyze the Evidence" along with a user specified search word. Click here to view the search example. A list of all variables and their values can be found in the glossary at the bottom of the page.


Here is a list of all possible variables that can be used to search the NQMC/NGC sites. The values for these varaibels are listed below

Variable code Variable Label Required
type Type yes
num Num yes
sx Keyword no
dc Disease/Condition no
ti Treatment/Intervention no
lc Guideline Category no
tbo Organization no
lot Organization Type no
liu Intended Users no
lcs Clinical Specialty no
lmaqs Methods Used to Assess the Quality and Strength of the Evidence no
lmaz Methods Used to Analyze the Evidence no
lmfr Methods Used to Formulate the Recommendations no
licn IOM Care Needs no
lid IOM Domain no
cbpr Only include guidelines that have no
cbca Only include guidelines that incorporate: A Formal Cost Analysis no
cbip Only include guidelines that incorporate: An Implementation Plan no
cbcal Only include guidelines that incorporate: A Clinical Algorithm no
la Age of Target Population no
ls Sex of Target Population no
lrd Publication Date no


Below are tables of all the values for each list on the detailed search. This is up to date as of 9/26/03


Guideline Category: code = lc
Value CodeValue Name
524 Assessment of Therapeutic Effectiveness
526 Counseling
519 Diagnosis
594 Education
335 Evaluation
521 Management
522 Prevention
336 Rehabilitation
525 Risk Assessment
523 Screening
337 Technology Assessment
520 Treatment

Organization Type: code = lot
Value CodeValue Name
8 Academic Institution
9 Disease Specific Society
3 Federal Government Agency [U.S.]
16 Hospital/Medical Center
19 Independent Expert Panel
5 International Agency
6 Managed Care Organization
7 Manufacturer
1 Medical Specialty Society
14 National Government Agency [Non-U.S.]
17 Nursing Home/Extended Care Facility
11 Private For Profit Organization
13 Private For Profit Research Organization
10 Private Nonprofit Organization
12 Private Nonprofit Research Organization
2 Professional Association
18 Public For Profit Organization
15 State/Local Government Agency [Non-U.S.]
4 State/Local Government Agency [U.S.]

Intended Users: code = liu
Value CodeValue Name
688 Advanced Practice Nurses
679 Allied Health Personnel
680 Chiropractors
681 Clinical Laboratory Personnel
682 Dentists
683 Dietitians
708 Emergency Medical Technicians/Paramedics
684 Health Care Providers
685 Health Plans
686 Hospitals
687 Managed Care Organizations
689 Nurses
690 Occupational Therapists
691 Optometrists
692 Other
693 Pathology Assistants
694 Patients
695 Pharmacists
696 Physical Therapists
697 Physician Assistants
698 Physicians
699 Podiatrists
700 Psychologists/Non-physician Behavioral Health Clinicians
701 Public Health Departments
702 Respiratory Care Practitioners
703 Social Workers
704 Speech-Language Pathologists
705 Students
706 Substance Use Disorders Treatment Providers
707 Utilization Management

Clinical Specialty: code = lcs
Value CodeValue Name
607 Adolescent Health
608 Allergy and Immunology
609 Anesthesiology
610 Behavioral Health
611 Cardiology
612 Cardiothoracic Surgery
613 Cardiovascular Nursing
614 Chiropractic
615 Clinical Laboratory
616 Clinical Pathology - Blood Bank and Transfusion Medicine
617 Colon and Rectal Surgery
618 Critical Care
619 Critical Care Nursing
620 Dentistry
621 Dermatology
622 Emergency Medicine
623 Endocrinology
624 Epidemiology and Public Health
625 Family Practice
626 Fetal and Maternal Medicine
627 Gastroenterology
628 General Surgery
629 Geriatrics
630 Gynecologic Oncology
631 Hematology
632 Infectious Diseases
633 Internal Medicine
634 Medical Genetics
635 Medical Oncology
636 Mental Health and Substance Abuse
637 Microbiology
638 Neonatology
639 Nephrology
640 Neurological Surgery
641 Neurology
642 Nuclear Medicine
643 Nursing
644 Nutrition
645 Obstetrics and Gynecology
646 Occupational Medicine
647 Oncology
648 Ophthalmology
649 Optometry
650 Orthopedic Surgery
651 Orthopedics
652 Otolaryngology
653 Pathology
654 Pediatric Cardiology
655 Pediatrics
656 Perinatology
657 Pharmacology
658 Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
659 Plastic Surgery
660 Podiatry
661 Preventive Medicine
662 Primary Care
663 Psychiatry
676 Psychology
664 Pulmonary Medicine
665 Radiation Oncology
666 Radiology
667 Rheumatology
668 Sleep Medicine
669 Social Services
670 Speech-Language Pathology
671 Sports Medicine
677 Surgery
672 Surgical Pathology
673 Thoracic Surgery
674 Urology
675 Vascular Surgery

Methods Used to Assess the Quality and Strength of the Evidence: code = lmaqs
Value CodeValue Name
710 Expert Consensus
711 Expert Consensus (Committee)
712 Expert Consensus (Delphi Method)
713 Subjective Review
714 Weighting According to a Rating Scheme (Scheme Given)
715 Weighting According to a Rating Scheme (Scheme Not Given)

Methods Used to Analyze the Evidence: code = lmaz
Value CodeValue Name
717 Decision Analysis
718 Meta-Analysis
719 Meta-Analysis of Individual Patient Data
720 Meta-Analysis of Observational Trials
721 Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
722 Meta-Analysis of Summarized Patient Data
723 Other
724 Review
727 Review of Published Meta-Analyses
725 Systematic Review
726 Systematic Review with Evidence Tables

Methods Used to Formulate the Recommendations: code = lmfr
Value CodeValue Name
603 Balance Sheets
599 Expert Consensus
602 Expert Consensus (Consensus Development Conference)
600 Expert Consensus (Delphi)
601 Expert Consensus (Nominal Group Technique)
598 Informal Consensus
605 Other

IOM Care Needs: code = licn
Value CodeValue Name
136 End of Life Care
137 Getting Better
138 Living with Illness
139 Staying Healthy

IOM Domain: code = lid
Value CodeValue Name
141 Effectiveness
552 Efficiency
553 Equity
142 Patient-centeredness
143 Safety
144 Timeliness

Age of Target Population: code = la
Value CodeValue Name
452 Adolescent (13 to 18 years)
453 Adult (19 to 44 years)
455 Aged (65 to 79 years)
456 Aged, 80 and over
451 Child (2 to 12 years)
450 Infant (1 to 23 months)
449 Infant, Newborn (to 1 month)
454 Middle Age (45 to 64 years)

Sex of Target Population: code = ls
Value CodeValue Name
459 Female
458 Male

Publication Date: code = lrd
Value CodeValue Name
2003 2003
2002 2002
2001 2001
2000 2000
1999 1999
1998 1998
1997 1997