The name is NICE!

While NHS serves healthcare in most of area in UK, there is an independent organisation named NICE to improve people's health and prevent illness. NICE establishes many practice guidelines related to public health, technology and treatment based on Evidence-based Medicine.

According to information from the website of NICE, these guidelines are categorised into 3 section; (Available at: http://www.nice.org.uk/aboutnice/about_nice.jsp)

• public health - guidance on the promotion of good health and the prevention of ill health for those working in the NHS, local authorities and the wider public and voluntary sector
• health technologies - guidance on the use of new and existing medicines, treatments and procedures within the NHS
• clinical practice - guidance on the appropriate treatment and care of people with specific diseases and conditions within the NHS.

For us, as Japanese physicians, 'The Guideline' shows how to diagnose and treat particular diseases and symptoms. However, contents in NICE are more than you imagine!

In addition, most of guidelines are revised and up-dated regularly. I would like to know how this system is organised and managed with skilled professional human resources and funding.

Administrators, Executives, and clinical professionals would not have to follow these guidelines exactly; however, budgeting is based on the outcome of Audit, thus their performance would follow the quality which NICE's guideline shows.

Furthermore, it could be important suggestion for us to learn how to implement guidelines into practice. There are skills sets on the web to support administrators to apply and implement guidelines into practice. They provide not only guideline itself, but also practical skills for clinical professionals to fill the gap in real clinical setting.

Also, an individual physician is not only person to take responsibility for clinical quality outcome and up-to-date their ability at clinical setting. Many professionals support quality control system and manage based on specific knowledge.

I think, a clinical quality is very depending on individual physician's attitude and moral in Japan. IN NHS, there are huge amount of examples and failure related to education, quality control and management of systems which we could learn and apply into our healthcare system.

*Japanese version: http://fp2hcm.blogspot.com/2007/11/nice.html