The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is a special health authority of the English National Health Service (NHS), serving both English NHS and the Welsh NHS. It was set up as the National Institute for Clinical Excellence in 1999, and on 1 April 2005 joined with the Health Development Agency to become the new National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (still abbreviated as NICE).
NICE publishes guidelines in three areas. The use of health technologies within the NHS (such as the use of new and existing medicines, treatments and procedures), clinical practice (guidance on the appropriate treatment and care of people with specific diseases and conditions), and guidance for public sector workers on Health promotion and ill-health avoidance. These appraisals are based primarily on evaluations of efficacy and cost-effectiveness in various circumstances.
NICE was established in an attempt to defuse the so-called postcode lottery of healthcare in England and Wales, where treatments that were available depended upon the NHS Health Authority area in which the patient happened to live but it has since acquired a high reputation internationally as a role model for the development of clinical guidelines. One aspect of this is the explicit determination of cost-benefit boundaries for certain technologies that it assesses. NICE also plays an important role in pioneering technology assessment in other healthcare systems through NICE International, established in May 2008 to help cultivate links with foreign governments.
Read more about National Institute For Health And Clinical Excellence: Policy History, Technology Appraisals, Clinical Guidelines, Cost Effectiveness, Criticism
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