NICE News June 2015

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Includes: Suspected cancer guideline update, workplace guidance, and quality standards on osteoarthritis and personality disorders.

Kent & Medway Health and Social Care Bulletin 5th June 2015

Your guide to what's new in public health and social care locally and nationally.  Produced by the Kent & Medway Public Health Observatory.

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NICE Eyes on Evidence - Issue 73 June 2015

This month in Eyes on Evidence...

Socioeconomic inequalities in cancer mortality
A cohort study found that British men in manual jobs were more likely than those in non-manual jobs to die from cancer, a disparity that remained broadly unchanged between 1978 and 2013.

Implementation of antibiotic prescribing guidance
A study of Public Health England’s ‘Start smart − then focus’ antibiotic prescribing toolkit concluded that most hospital antibiotic policies in England ‘start smart’ by recommending broad-spectrum antibiotics for empirical therapy in severe infections. However fewer ‘focus’ by reviewing the ongoing need for antibiotics after a couple of days, as recommended.

Costs of autism spectrum disorders
An analysis of data in existing literature estimated that the lifetime direct and indirect costs associated with a person with an autism spectrum disorder in the UK was £1.5 million for those who also had an intellectual disability and £0.92 million for those without intellectual disability, although the range of costs was considerable.

Stenting versus endarterectomy for symptomatic carotid stenosis
An international multicentre randomised trial found that carotid stenting was as effective as endarterectomy at preventing fatal or disabling stroke for up to 10 years in people with symptomatic carotid stenosis.

Imaging techniques to diagnose suspected kidney stones
A randomised controlled trial in the US found that using ultrasonography as initial imaging for suspected kidney stones in people presenting to A&E was associated with less radiation exposure than CT and did not increase the incidence of subsequent high-risk diagnoses with complications that could be related to missed or delayed diagnosis.

Evidence summaries from NICE’s Medicines and Prescribing Programme
NICE has recently published medicines evidence summaries on:
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: aclidinium/formoterol 
Infantile haemangioma: oral propranolol
Asthma: tiotropium as add-on therapy to inhaled corticosteroids in moderate asthma
Acute coronary syndromes: further evidence on duration of dual antiplatelet therapy after drug-eluting stent implantation

Looking for good quality systematic reviews?
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