It may be of interest to identify how NICE decide on guidance topics, the following is an extract from their web site.
Interestingly, it is down to Ministers at the Department of Health who will make final decisions about which topics are referred to NICE!! Maybe we ought to be lobbying our politicians as well as approaching NICE directly in this way.
How guidance topics are chosen
The Department of Health commissions NICE to develop clinical guidelines, guidance on public health and technology appraisals. Topics for the interventional procedures program are notified to NICE directly, usually by clinicians.
The topics NICE considers come from a number of sources:
clinical and public health professionals, patients, carers and the general public the Department of Health's national clinical directors and policy teams the National Horizon Scanning Centre (they suggest new and emerging health technologies that might need to be assessed) suggestions from within NICE itself. The Department of Health carried out a public consultation on the topic selection process from March - June 2006. As a result NICE was asked to manage the administration of the early stages of the topic selection process on behalf of the Department of Health. Topics suggested since January 2006 onwards will be managed by NICE under the new process. Ministers at the Department of Health will continue to retain responsibility for the final decision about which topics are referred to NICE.
Paul
