NICE 2002/058
Issued: 12 November 2002


PRESS RELEASE

NICE announces membership of Interventional Procedures Advisory Committee

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) has announced the membership of its new Interventional Procedures Advisory Committee. The Committee will be responsible for providing advice to NICE on whether interventional procedures used for diagnosis or treatment are safe enough and work well enough for routine use.

Responsibility for interventional procedures transferred to NICE on 1st April 2002, following a recommendation made in the Kennedy Report that aims to produce an NHS centred on patients' needs in which systems are in place to ensure safe care and to maintain and improve the quality of care.

Professor Sir Michael Rawlins, Chairman said: "Interventional procedures are one of the ways in which the Institute will work with health professionals and patients to improve the quality and consistency of care provided by the NHS. Unlike technology appraisals and guidelines, which focus on clinical and cost effectiveness, the interventional procedures programme will focus on the safety and efficacy of the interventions it considers. The Interventional Procedures Advisory Committee will be key to providing robust, expert and objective advice in the development of our advice in this area."

The Committee is chaired by Professor Bruce Campbell and has a broad and inclusive representation of stakeholders including a number of surgeons, radiologists and specialist consultants, a GP principal, an NHS Trust Chief Executive, an industry Medical Director and two representatives from patient organisations. A full membership list can be found in the notes for editors section, and biographies for the Committee members can be found on the NICE website.

The Interventional Procedures Advisory Committee will be supported by a medically qualified Programme Director, Dr Tom Dent, who has been appointed to manage the new interventional procedures work programme.

NICE has consulted with organisations representing healthcare professionals, patients and carers, and other stakeholders on its proposals for the establishment of a new programme to assess the safety and efficacy of new interventional procedures. The consultation period ended on 1 July 2002, and the NICE Board considered feedback from the consultation period at its meeting on 17 July 2002. Dr Dent will be working with the Committee to finalise its working arrangements, and the new programme will be formally launched in February 2003.

In the interim the Committee will be advising NICE and the NHS on a range of topics inherited from the SERNIP programme (Safety and Efficacy Register for New Interventional Procedures).

Ends

Notes to Editors

About NICE

1. NICE is part of the NHS. It is the independent organisation responsible for providing national guidance on treatments and care for those using the NHS in England and Wales. Its guidance is for healthcare professionals and patients and their carers to help them make decisions about treatment and healthcare. For further information about NICE you can visit www.nice.org.uk.
2.

NICE produces guidance in three areas of health:

  • the use of new and existing medicines and treatments within the NHS in England and Wales - technology appraisals
  • the appropriate treatment and care of patients with specific diseases and conditions within the NHS in England and Wales - clinical guidelines.
  • the safety and usefulness of an interventional procedure, for example a new type of surgery - interventional procedures.
3. NICE has recently assumed responsibility for developing guidance about whether interventional procedures used for diagnosis or treatment are safe enough and work well enough for routine use. An interventional procedure is a procedure used for diagnosis or treatment that involves making a cut or hole in the body, entry into a body cavity or using electromagnetic radiation (including X-rays or lasers).
4.

NICE will issue guidance on interventional procedures to ensure that:

  • Patients and carers are reassured that new interventional procedures are being monitored and reviewed to protect their safety, and that they will have access to public information about registered procedures.
  • Clinicians, healthcare organisations and the NHS as a whole will be supported in the process of introducing new procedures.
  • NICE can encourage innovation by facilitating data collection and analysis, conducting rapid reviews and providing advice on the safety and efficacy of new procedures.
5.

Membership of the Interventional Procedures Advisory Committee is as follows:

  • Professor Bruce Campbell (Chair): Consultant in vascular and general surgery at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital.
  • Professor Paul Abrams: Professor of Urology and Consultant Surgeon at the Bristol Urological Institute, Southmead Hospital, Bristol.
  • Mr Alan Bartle: Chief Executive of the Lymphoma Association.
  • Dr Anna-Maria Belli: Consultant and Senior Lecturer in Radiology at St Georges Hospital, London.
  • Dr Christopher Bunch: Consultant Physician, and formerly Medical Director at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Medicine at University of Oxford and a Fellow Emeritus of Wolfson College Oxford.
  • Mr Stephen Cannon: Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Clinical Director and Chairman of the London Bone and Soft Tissue Tumour Unit at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore.
  • Dr Roger Chapman: Consultant Gastroenterologist Oxford Radcliffe Hospital and Honorary Senior Lecturer in Medicine, Oxford Medical School.
  • Mrs Sheena Cumiskey: Chief Executive of Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh Health Services NHS Trust.
  • Dr Keith Dawkins: Consultant Cardiologist, Wessex Cardiothoracic Centre Southampton University Hospital.
  • Dr Adrian Freeman: GP Principle, Cancer Lead for Exeter PC, Community Sub Dean for the Peninsula Medical School.
  • Mr David J Hay FRCS FACS: Consultant General Surgeon at Glan Clwyd Hospital, North Wales
  • Mr Paul Hilton: Consultant Gynaecologist and Subspecialist in Urogynecology at the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust.
  • Dr Roop Kishen: Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine and Anaesthesia at Hope Hospital, Salford and Hon Clinical Lecturer, Victoria University of Manchester.
  • Dr Susanne Ludgate: Medical Director of the Medical Devices Agency.
  • Professor Gordon Murray: Professor of Medical Statistics and Head of Public Health Sciences at the University of Edinburgh.
  • Dr Eileen Scott: Research and Development Co-ordinator North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Trust.
  • Dr Sandeep Shah: Medical Director of SSL International.
  • Dr John Shanks: Director of Clinical Programmes, National Patient Safety Agency
  • Mr Anthony de Souza: Consultant Cardiac Surgeon at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London.
  • Professor Teasdale: Professor of Neurosurgery, University of Glasgow, Vice President of the Society of British Neurological Surgeons.
  • Dr Merran Thomson: Consultant Neonatal Paediatrician at Queen Charlottes and Chelsea Hospital, London.
  • Mr Simon Williams: Director of Policy at the Patients Association.
  • Professor Charles Wolfe: Academic public health physician at King's College, London, and Guys & St Thomas' Trust.
  • Professor Kent Woods: Consultant physician at Leicester Royal Infirmary and Professor of Therapeutics at the University of Leicester.

Full biographical details for all members can be found on the Institute's website at http://www.nice.org.uk/cat.asp?c=34711.
6. Professor Bruce Campbell Professor Campbell is Consultant in Vascular and General Surgery at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, where he was Chairman of Clinical Audit for many years. He served on the Development and Evaluation Committee (DEC) for the South West, and Chaired that Committee for the South of England. More recently he has been a member of the NICE Appraisals Committee, and Chairman of the Interventional Technologies Panel for the HTA Programme.
7. Dr Tom Dent has been appointed the Programme Director for Interventional Procedures from 1 July 2002. He worked previously as a consultant in public health medicine at a health authority and primary care trust in Hampshire. He is a visiting senior lecturer at the National Coordinating Centre for Health Technology Assessment at the University of Southampton, where his work includes prioritising new interventional procedures for research in the HTA Programme. [If you are referencing this page for information about Dr Tom Dent, please note that this information was correct at 12 November 2002 when this press release was issued. Dr Dent no longer works for NICE or for the University of Southampton.]
8. The Safety and Efficacy Register of New Interventional Procedures (SERNIP) was set up as a pilot project in May 1996 and managed by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. The pilot was funded by the Department of Health. In January 2002 the Department of Health stated in its response to the Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry (Kennedy Report) that responsibility for evaluating the safety and efficacy of new interventional procedures would transfer to NICE. The Institute is in the process of validating the content of the register. Following validation appropriate data will be transferred to the Institute's work programme.