We’re bringing our guidance together by topic, so that it’s all in one place, clearer to understand and easier to access.
We expect that this will help increase the use of promising medicines and treatments in the NHS. This will lead to a more effective use of NHS resources, and better outcomes for patients.
Currently we produce guidance products separately. For example, as technology appraisals and guidelines.
Through this project, we're looking to include our published technology appraisals guidance in our guidelines. So, you'll be able to access all our guidance on a topic in one place.
This will mean:
- It’s easier for commissioners, practitioners and patients to access and decide on treatment options.
- Better adoption of promising new treatments across the NHS.
- It’s easier for you to achieve the best outcomes for patients whilst making the best use of NHS resources.
How we're doing this
Initially, we’re working through our published technology appraisals and, where it's straightforward, incorporating them into relevant guidelines. This means we're presenting all relevant technology appraisal recommendations in the guideline at the appropriate point in the care pathway, without changing their meaning, intent or eligible patient population.
Our aim is to incorporate 170 technology appraisals into our guidelines this year, in line with our commitment in the 2024 voluntary scheme for branded medicines pricing, access and growth.
Our methods
In February 2024 we launched a 9-week public consultation on proposed, interim methods for including technology appraisals in our guidelines.
We received extensive and wide-ranging comments on the approaches we proposed. There was broad support for straightforward incorporation of technology appraisals within guidelines, as set out above.
Feedback on the approach we proposed for more complex cases – for example, where there are multiple NICE-recommended treatment options within the care pathway – was mixed. Some stakeholders supported our proposals. But there was opposition from others, particularly around potential impacts on patient choice and access to medicines, and commercial considerations.
As a result of the consultation feedback, we've updated our interim methods and processes for including technology appraisals in guidelines, and are focusing on straightforward incorporation first.
Next steps
Going forward, we will continue to review and update our approach to the more complex cases, where straightforward incorporation of technology appraisals is not likely to meet the needs of our guideline users.
We will undertake further work with stakeholders to develop our methods in this area. And test how easy new approaches will be to implement.
Updates to our type 2 diabetes and osteoporosis guidelines, in which we'd planned to pilot new methods for complex incorporation of technology appraisals, will proceed using existing NICE methods.