The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has accredited the processes used by the Royal College of Surgeons of England: Surgical Specialty Associations, Royal College of Physicians, British Society for Rheumatology (BSR) and Truven Health Analytics to produce guidance.

Professor David Haslam, Chair of the NICE Accreditation Advisory Committee said: “I am delighted to congratulate these four organisations on the accreditation of their processes.

“As Chair of the NICE Accreditation Advisory Committee I have been pleased to see the NICE Accreditation Programme grow from strength to strength.

“NICE accredited organisations are able to display the Accreditation Mark which is seen as the ‘seal of approval' that indicates high standard, good quality information. Their commitment to the philosophy of the programme - a desire to improve the quality of guidance - is admirable and will certainly lead to improved patient care.”

The Royal College of Surgeons of England: Surgical Specialty Associations

Funded by the Department of Health Right Care team, the Royal College of Surgeons of England is supporting the Surgical Specialty Associations (SSAs) to develop 28 pieces of guidance for Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), with more in the pipeline, across a wide range of surgical interventions. Much of the guidance will be launched in June and will be available on both College and Surgical Specialty Association websites.

The aim of the clinical commissioning guides is to support CCGs to commission high value surgical care for patients and reduce the ‘postcode' lottery in the provision of surgical services.

The Accreditation Advisory Committee considered that the processes used by the College to produce clinical Commissioning Guides demonstrated compliance with all 25 criteria for accreditation.

Professor Norman Williams, President of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, said: “Patient safety and high quality care is front and centre of all that we do. Our NICE accredited process for developing the clinical commissioning guides will enable the College and Surgical Specialty Associations to provide advice and support to CCGs on surgical services. The guidance will give CCGs a clear understanding of what cost effective, high quality care should look like and enable us to work with them to drive up the standards of patient care across England.”

The Royal College of Physicians

The Royal College of Physicians has been ensuring that medicine is practised to the highest standard for nearly 500 years.

The Royal College of Physicians sets and monitors the standards of medical training. Evidence-based guidelines and audits support members in improving and scrutinising clinical care.

The Royal College of Physicians' involvement in the development of a range of clinical guidelines includes the Concise Guidelines series. One process used to develop these concise guidelines abstracts relevant information for non-specialist physicians and those working outside their own specialism from larger specialist guidelines.

The Accreditation Advisory Committee considered that these processes used by the Royal College of Physicians to produce its Concise Guidelines met 24 of the 25 criteria for accreditation.

Sir Richard Thompson, president of the Royal College of Physicians said: “Our commitment to improving the quality of care for patients and raising standards is at the heart of all our activities. We are therefore extremely pleased to receive this accreditation. This ‘stamp of approval' will serve as an important quality indicator for users of our Concise Guidelines series and will have a positive impact on patient care.”

The British Society for Rheumatology

The British Society for Rheumatology, which represents rheumatology in the UK, has been at the forefront of the production of guidelines for best clinical practice in rheumatology for 25 years. It promotes excellence in the treatment of people with arthritis and musculoskeletal conditions and supports those delivering it. Its members include clinical rheumatologists and other health professionals involved in care of people with musculoskeletal conditions.

The British Society for Rheumatology guidelines are developed in close collaboration with the British Health Professionals in Rheumatology.

The NICE Accreditation Advisory Committee considered that the processes used by The British Society for Rheumatology to produce its Clinical guidelines met all 25 of the accreditation criteria.

Laura Guest, Chief Executive of the British Society for Rheumatology, said: “Over the past 10 years the methodology for the production of evidence-based guidelines has evolved considerably. We are delighted at this validation of our processes and we are confident that through our involvement in the NICE Accreditation Programme we will continue to drive up the standards of guidance in this field.”

Truven Health Analytics

Truven Health Analytics is a company that specialises in clinical decision support (CDS), analytics tools, benchmarking and services for the healthcare industry including hospitals, government agencies, employers, health insurance providers, clinicians and pharmaceutical companies.

The NICE Accreditation Programme has been piloting the use of the accreditation criteria and processes to assess the way content is collected and developed for a number of clinical decision support systems. The NICE Accreditation Advisory Committee considered the processes used by Truven Health Analytics® to develop and maintain the clinical information in its online database (Micromedex® Medication Management - Micromedex Drugdex® evaluations and Drug Points summaries) which assists clinicians to make informed and safe decisions about patients' medication and care management decisions at the point of care.

The NICE Accreditation Advisory Committee considered that the processes used by Truven Health Analytics to produce the content in its database met 22 of the 23 applicable accreditation criteria.

Mike Boswood, President and Chief Executive Officer, Truven Health Analytics said: “We are honoured to be recognised by NICE, which is known internationally for promoting excellence in patient care. The accreditation acknowledges the tradition of editorial excellence our team has built up over decades of hard work and recognises the potential that Micromedex content has to improve patient care.”

Quality standards

Where appropriate the accredited guidance from these organisations can now be considered as part of the development of NICE quality standards.

NICE quality standards are derived from NICE guidance and other guidance accredited by the NICE Accreditation Programme and are central to supporting the Government's vision for an NHS and social care system focused on delivering the best possible outcomes for people who use services, as detailed in the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

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ENDS

About NICE

1. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is the independent organisation responsible for providing national guidance and standards on the promotion of good health and the prevention and treatment of ill health.

2. NICE produces guidance in three areas of health:

• public health - guidance on the promotion of good health and the prevention of ill health for those working in the NHS, local authorities and the wider public and voluntary sector
• health technologies - guidance on the use of new and existing medicines, treatments, medical technologies (including devices and diagnostics) and procedures within the NHS
• clinical practice - guidance on the appropriate treatment and care of people with specific diseases and conditions within the NHS.

3. NICE produces standards for patient care:

• quality standards -these reflect the very best in high quality patient care, to help healthcare practitioners and commissioners of care deliver excellent services
• Quality and Outcomes Framework - NICE develops the clinical and health improvement indicators in the QOF, the Department of Health scheme which rewards GPs for how well they care for patients
• Commissioning Outcomes Framework - NICE develops the potential indicators for the COF, the scheme starting in 2013, which will help measure the health outcomes and quality of care commissioned by Clinical Commissioning Groups.

4. NICE provides advice and support on putting NICE guidance and standards into practice through its implementation programme, and it collates and accredits high quality health guidance, research and information to help health professionals deliver the best patient care through NICE Evidence Search (previously NHS Evidence).

Notes to Editors

1. The final accreditation reports are available on the NICE website.

2. NICE's Accreditation Programme verifies the most robustly-produced guidance available to health and social care professionals, enabling them to drive quality outcomes that are among the best in the world. It uses rigorous assessment processes based on international standards for guideline development produced by the Appraisal of Guidelines Research & Evaluation collaboration (AGREE II) instrument.

3. The Accreditation Mark is a registered trademark of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. It appears next to titles within search results on the NHS Evidence portal to denote those information sources that have passed the criteria for producing high-quality information.

4. Provided it is relevant to a search, information from accredited sources features on NHS Evidence in the top results, with the Accreditation Mark clearly displayed.

5. An accredited organisation can display the Accreditation Mark publicly as a sign of its high standard achieved in developing information.

6. Accreditation lasts for 5 years.