NICE process and methods
6 Development
6 Development
For each treatment options summary, a project manager from the medicines optimisation team facilitates development.
6.1 Scoping
The development team is responsible for writing the scope that outlines the aim of each specific treatment options summary. The scope is peer reviewed by clinical experts involved in development of the visual summary of treatment options. Scoping also includes the development of a user testing plan, to support the development of the product and as part of the review and update process.
To avoid unnecessary costs and to ensure these products can be rapidly updated as new innovations become available and are evaluated, additional health economic modelling is not carried out as part of the development.
6.2 Producing the visual product
A medicines adviser identifies NICE recommended treatment options at different decision points in the patient journey. They work with the publishing team to explore different visual design ideas and a draft visual product is produced.
The experts are asked specific questions about current clinical practice. For more complex products, such as the lung cancer example, experts may help with placement of different technologies in the patient journey. The experts review the draft summaries of treatment options. The publishing team produce the final visual products suitable for publication, ensuring they met legal accessibility requirements.
6.3 Quality assurance
Treatment option summaries are quality-assured by the medicines optimisation team who perform a detailed accuracy check.
The products are signed off by a medicines optimisation associate director. Any associated changes relating to existing NICE guidance recommendations are agreed and signed off by the responsible associate director. The near-final version is agreed by the experts involved, and the products approved for publication by NICE's guidance executive.