The Guideline Development Process
NICE guidelines are developed according to methods set out by
NICE in its manual Guideline Development Methods -
Information for National Collaborating Centres and Guideline
Developers.
In common with other national guideline
programmes, the NICE programme is explicitly evidence-based. There
are three distinctive features of the NICE guidelines
programme:
- A strong commitment to patient involvement in the guideline
development process: each guideline should have at least two
patient/carer organisation representatives and they will be
supported by the Patient Involvement Unit (PIU), based at
NICE.
- A need to address the cost-effectiveness of recommendations
through health economic input during the guideline development
process.
- The consultation process is extensive.
Four versions of each NCC-PC guideline are developed: First,
the full version which is published
electronically by the Collaborating Centres. This is an extensive
document which presents all the summaries of the evidence used to
generate the recommendations.
Second, the NICE Guideline which is
a summary of all the guideline recommendations.
Third, the Quick Reference Guide,
published by NICE, which summaries the recommendations often using
algorithms of guidelines.
Fourth, NICE publish a version of the guideline intended for
patients and carers, Understanding NICE
Guidance.