How guidance topics are chosen

The Department of Health commissions NICE to develop clinical guidelines, guidance on public health and technology appraisals. Topics for the interventional procedures program are notified to NICE directly, usually by clinicians.

The topics NICE considers come from a number of sources:

• clinical and public health professionals, patients, carers and the general public
• the Department of Health's national clinical directors and policy teams
• the National Horizon Scanning Centre (they suggest new and emerging health technologies that might need to be assessed)
• suggestions from within NICE itself.

NICE has responsibility for managing the administration of the early stages of the topic selection process on behalf of the Department of Health. Ministers at the Department of Health have responsibility for the final decision about which topics are referred to NICE.

How to suggest a topic to NICE

You can suggest a topic for NICE to develop guidance on by:

• downloading the form and emailing it to topicsuggestion@nice.org.uk or posting it to NICE.
• requesting a hard copy of the form by emailing topicsuggestion@nice.org.uk or calling 0845 003 7781.

The online suggestion form is currently unavailable.

If you are a manufacturer and want to suggest that NICE develops guidance on a new healthcare technology (one that is not yet licensed or used within the NHS), you should contact the National Horizon Scanning Centre. They are responsible for letting the Department of Health know of key new and emerging healthcare technologies that might need to be referred to NICE.

Clinicians wishing to notify NICE about a topic for the interventional procedures program should read this information.

The selection process

NICE reviews each of the suggestions received to ensure they are appropriate and to check whether they are already included in its work. The suggestions are then filtered according to a check list based on the Department of Health's selection criteria. The DH selection criteria were developed in July 2006 in response to the public consultation on the new process for selecting topics for referral to NICE. The suggestions are then reviewed by consideration panels composed of experts in the topic area, generalists with a good knowledge of the health service, public health and the public sector, and patient and carer representatives. The panels' recommendations go to the Department of Health and a health Minister makes the final decision on which topics are referred to NICE for guidance to be produced.

The selection criteria take into account:

• burden of disease (population affected, morbidity, mortality)
• resource impact (i.e. the cost impact on the NHS or the public sector)
• policy importance (i.e. whether the topic falls within a government priority area)
• whether there is inappropriate variation in practice across the country
• factors affecting the timeliness or urgency for guidance to be produced.

A draft manual is available online or in hard copy from NICE (0845 003 7781) outlining the topic selection process in detail, including the full selection criteria.