NICE is planning to introduce ‘recommendation reminders’ from December 2006, as part of a new set of products to help the NHS make better use of its resources. The aim is to help the NHS reduce ineffective practice by highlighting recommendations from existing NICE guidance.
Reminders will be issued on current NICE recommendations published as technology appraisals and clinical guidelines between 2000 and the end of 2005. They will appear on the NICE website, along with an electronic tool for estimating the local cost implications.
Reminders will be issued according to a number of criteria. But they will always focus on NICE recommendations that:
- state that the intervention, diagnostic test or approach to care should be restricted or discontinued
- refer to an activity that is still part of current clinical practice.
The chair of the advisory body which originally made the recommendation will help determine whether a reminder should be issued. The chair will take advice, where necessary, from practicing clinicians. Then a tool will be developed to help local commissioners assess the cost implications of implementing the recommendation.
One example of a reminder that NICE is already planning to issue concerns the use of drugs for people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
In one major UK centre for the treatment of PTSD, it is estimated that around 30% of patients were on psychotropic medication when they were first assessed. A further 30% are prescribed drugs during their follow-up appointments at the clinic. According to NICE’s guideline, trauma-focused psychological therapy is usually the most effective treatment: drugs should not be offered routinely instead of (or in addition to) this therapy. (See ´Management of post-traumatic stress disorder in adults in primary, secondary and community care.')
Each recommendation reminder will be published online in a tabular format with electronic links to the original guidance document and the costing tool. Depending on how many are identified, the Institute aims to send out four reminders a month for 2 years. They will be aimed at the relevant management and clinical communities in PCTs and other NHS trusts – mainly commissioners, but also healthcare professionals working with patients.
The recommendation reminders are one of a set of three new products being introduced by NICE to help reduce ineffective practice in the NHS. These include commissioning guides, which were introduced in October, and specially developed technology appraisals and clinical guidelines, which will be launched over the coming months.
For more on commissioning guides, see ‘In focus’ (3 October). For more on the new technology appraisals/clinical guidelines see a future ‘In focus’ article.
