Heart failure is a complex disorder that affects patients and their carers in many ways. Recommendations for improving the quality of care for people with heart failure are set out in the government's National Service Framework for Coronary Heart Disease (Department of Health (DH) 2000a) and in the guideline commissioned by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE 2003a), which desc...

The U.K.'s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) was established to perform three core functions: 1) reduce unwarranted variation in practice across the United Kingdom through the development and dissemination of best practice evidence-based standards; 2) encourage fast diffusion and uniform uptake of high-value medical innovations; and 3) ensure the taxpayers' money is i...

This editorial summarizes the main recommendations of the NICE guideline on psychosis and coexisting substance misuse. It outlines the dearth of specific evidence (especially for integrated models), but emphasizes implementation of evidence for the treatment of psychosis and substance misuse separately for current best practice and policy. It highlights research options and training needs to fu...

Clinical guidelines have become a core element in optimising care for patients with cardiovascular disease. However, the quality of depends on rigorous unbiased process that integrates clinical evidence input from range stakeholders. In this issue Heart , Garbi1 summarises National Institute Health and Care Excellence (NICE) principles processes development England. The discussion is divided in...

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in the United Kingdom developed guidelines for the diagnosis, prevention, and management of delirium in July 2010 that included 10 recommendations for delirium prevention. The Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP) is a targeted multicomponent strategy that has proven effective and cost-effective at preventing functional and cognitive...

Surgical site infections (SSIs) may affect up to 40% of patients post-operatively depending on the type operation. They are a burden both for patient and healthcare system due valuable resources they consume, with each colorectal SSI costing National Health Service (NHS) average £10,523 per patient. SSIs can be classified as superficial, deep and/or organ space, there many modifiable non-modifi...

OBJECTIVE To assess the efficiency of alternative monitoring services for people with ocular hypertension (OHT), a glaucoma risk factor. DESIGN Discrete event simulation model comparing five alternative care pathways: treatment at OHT diagnosis with minimal monitoring; biennial monitoring (primary and secondary care) with treatment if baseline predicted 5-year glaucoma risk is ≥6%; monitoring...

Abstract Background In the absence of a framework designed to evaluate medicines for rare diseases in UK, most orphan are appraised by National Institute Health and Care Excellence (NICE) through Single Technology Appraisal (STA) process. Results An analysis STA appraisals non-orphan revealed that were subject significantly longer mean time NICE process than [370 days (n = 44) vs. 277 118), p &...