Guidance to improve service user experience: how NICE is that?

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Lucy Simons and Paul Radin summarise the latest Evidence Update from NICE relating to their 2011 guidance to improve service user experience

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Multimorbidity – NICE guidance scoping consultation

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Get involved in the NICE scoping consultation on multimorbidities. Today’s post is a little different in nature – rather than bringing you the evidence, we are asking you to get involved in helping to shape it. NICE are in the process of defining the scope of their guidelines on multimorbidity (a combination of two or [read the full story…]

Health effects of depression: keeping economists’ models on track

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Health Economist Christopher Sampson reports on a recent systematic review and meta-analysis, which shows health-related quality of life utility values vary between studies and economic models should consider this.

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Autism Evidence Update from NICE published

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It is not clear exactly what the prevalence of autism is amongst the population of adults with learning disabilities. Estimates vary amongst published studies and a recent review carried out by the team at Improving Health and Lives  looked at a range of studies that attempted to estimate the prevalence of autism among community-based or [read the full story…]

Care and support of older people with learning disabilities chosen for NICE social care quality guidance and standards in 2015

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Background NICE (National Institute of Health and Care Excellence) provides guidance and quality standards for health and social care in England. Its evidence-based guidance is produced to support health and social care professionals to ensure that support provided they is of the best possible quality and offers the best value for money. Following a Department [read the full story…]

No evidence to support or refute the practice of six-monthly dental check-ups

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Having your teeth regularly examined by a dentist seems to have been recommended back as far the 18th Century (Richards 2002) and subsequently the six-monthly visit became de rigueur.  The scientific basic for this interval was challenged by Sheiham in 1977  and there has subsequently been much debate about the clinical and cost-effectiveness of recall [read the full story…]

Rate of falls in older adults with learning disabilities substantially higher than in general elderly population Netherlands study finds

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Background Falls and fall-related injuries are a common and serious problem for older people. Nice guidance published in June last year suggested that 30% of people over 65 and 50% of people over older than 80 fall at least once a year. Falls are estimated to cost the NHS more than £2.3 billion per year. [read the full story…]

Lack of evidence to support QOF incentives for assessing depression severity using tools in primary care

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Introduction The quality and outcomes framework was set up in 2004 to incentivise aspects of clinical practice within general practice in the UK. Two standards which are incentivised in depression are DEP4 (the percentage of patients who have had assessment of severity at diagnosis using a tool validated for use in primary care (PHQ-9, BDI-II, [read the full story…]

New NICE TA: Aripiprazole for treating moderate to severe manic episodes in adolescents with bipolar I disorder

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NICE has just published a new technology appraisal recommending aripiprazole as a treatment for bipolar disorder in young people. Technology Appraisals are systematic evaluations of the effectiveness of health technologies.  They do not have the broad scope of guidelines, which focus on topics rather than technologies, but they do give guidance for clinical practice on the [read the full story…]