Maintaining ERNIE

Searching the literature

NICE searches these databases for relevant studies and sources of information: Assia; Cinahl; Cochrane; DH-Data; Embase; Google; Heed; HMIC; Medline; NeLH resources; NHS Eed; PsychInfo; PubMed and Sigle.

ERNIE also includes any reports published by other organisations which come to the attention of NICE. If you have identified a study that is not currently on ERNIE, please contact the NICE implementation team.

Classifying the literature and NICE implementation uptake reports

ERNIE classifies the result of each NICE implementation uptake report and piece of external literature as:

• Practice appears to be in line with guidance
• Practice appears not to be in line with guidance
• Doubts about or mixed impact in practice

In addition, the following categories are used for studies that have either not yet been assessed, or where there is insufficient information in the study to make an assessment about implementation:.

• Not graded = insufficient evidence to make assessment
• Awaiting grading = study has not yet been assessed

All the above assessments are examined independently by three individuals experienced in evaluation. A short qualitative description of the sample, method and main result for each study assessed and included in the database is also provided.

Developing the coverage

ERNIE contains references to many more studies than have been assessed using the above criteria. It will take time to review the results of all included studies and be confident the database is up to date.

If you are aware of information reflecting the uptake of NICE guidance that might be suitable for inclusion in the ERNIE database, please let the implementation team know and we will aim to add it to future updates.