NICE 2002/006

Issued: 1 February 2002

Press release

The review of how the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE or "the Institute") disseminates its guidance to stakeholders entered its main phase today with the mail-out of 10,000 questionnaires to individuals within the NHS, the healthcare professions and patient groups in England and Wales. In addition, on-line questionnaires will be made available from 4 February on the NICE website. The results of the questionnaire will be used to help shape the Institute's future strategy.

This phase of the review follows nearly 100 one-to-one interviews with some of the Institute's key partners and stakeholders. Anne-Toni Rodgers, the Institute's Communications Director, commented: "The findings from the initial, qualitative, phase of the review provided us with valuable information about how those who receive our guidance use it and how they would like to receive it. The questionnaires will enable us to explore, with a significant number of our stakeholders some of the ideas and feedback generated during the interviews."

The review will be complete at the end of March 2002 after which the Institute will make the findings of the review and the recommendations for its future dissemination strategy public.

The Institute has appointed Citigate Westminster and Citigate DVL Smith to support it in this work and Phil Ranson, (Communication Executive, NICE) is leading the Review on behalf of the Institute.

Ends

Click here to go to the online dissemination review questionnaire

Notes for Editors

Background

  1. Under the terms of the Statutory Instrument within which NICE operates, the Institute is charged to "…effectively disseminate clinical guidelines and audit methodologies by working in partnership with the national professional bodies, the DoH, the National Assembly for Wales, the NHS and the public" in order to help health professionals in the NHS give their patients the best possible healthcare within the resources available.
  2. The Institute's current approach to dissemination was informed by the overall strategic objectives of the organisation and was appropriate for the Institute when establishing its presence, with a small number of selected publications, within the NHS.
  3. The Institute has concluded that the current approach to dissemination is unsustainable given both the increasing financial pressure that will be exerted as the Institute's work programme reaches maturity, and the volume of guidance to be disseminated.
  4. In addition, the Institute is committed to maximising the increasing opportunities for dissemination presented by electronic media.
  5. To date, no systematic review into the effectiveness or appropriateness of the Institute's methods of disseminating its guidance has been performed.
  6. The review of dissemination will involve a number of distinct phases:
    • The information from a systematic review of published materials relating to effective dissemination will be used to underpin the development of alternative strategies for dissemination as the review progresses through its stakeholder consultative phases.
    • The review will benchmark the Institute's dissemination methods against examples of best practice from organisations both within and outside the healthcare sector.
    • The consultative phases will involve engaging directly with 1000s of the Institute's key stakeholders within the NHS, the medical professions and with patients and patient groups. This will involve a mix of qualitative (one-to-one depth interviews/focus groups) and quantitative (survey questionnaires directly mailed or available on the Institute's website) methods.
    • The review will also incorporate an audit of key stakeholders' understanding of the Institute's purpose, tasks and methodology. This audit will inform the development of a revised corporate communications strategy to further develop stakeholders' understanding of the Institute's work from April 2002.

     

  7. The review will be completed for the end of March 2002, with the aim of implementing a new dissemination strategy during the summer.
  8. NICE is part of the NHS and its role is to provide authoritative and reliable guidance on healthcare for patients and their carers, healthcare professionals and the wider public in England and Wales.
  9. The Institute produces three key guidance products for the NHS: technology appraisals, which assess the clinical and cost effectiveness of specific medicines, medical devices, diagnostic techniques, surgical procedures and health promotions; clinical guidelines; and clinical audit advice.