NICE News April 2016

New guidance and standards Renewed call to tackle antimicrobial resistance  A long-term solution to antibiotic resistance can only be achieved if we act now, an expert has warned. The comment comes as NICE launches a new quality standard which aims to help healthcare professionals and organisations tackle the problem.

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Ensuring the safer use of controlled drugs NICE has issued new guidance on ensuring controlled drugs such as morphine, methadone, and diazepam are used safely and responsibly. The guidance will help health and social care professionals negotiate complex legislation and regulations to ensure they are doing all they can to care for patients being treated with controlled drugs.

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Updated guidance on routine preoperative tests NICE recommends reducing the number of routine tests used in healthy patients before planned surgery. Updated guidance on preoperative tests has been simplified for use, and aims to reduce the number of unnecessary treatments patients currently receive.

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Features NICE in numbers  Take a look at some facts and figures from guidance products that we’ve published in the first quarter of the year.

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Elaine Inglesby-Burke joins NICE Board Elaine Inglesby-Burke, a senior nurse, has joined NICE as Non-Executive Director. In an interview with Nursing Times, Ms Inglesby-Burke spoke about how a priority for NICE should be a stronger focus on guidance that supports nurses to lead service change across health and social care.

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Blogs Putting patients first to ease the effects of complex illnesses Professor David Haslam, Chair of NICE, talks about the challenges of tackling multimorbidity. His comments follow the publication of draft NICE guidelines on multimorbidity. The guidelines are currently open for consultation and aim to help healthcare professionals make effective decisions about a person’s care based on their individual circumstances.

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The 'trauma' of too much information Jon Holley, a trainee in trauma orthopaedic surgery, discusses ‘information overload’ and how a new set of slides he has developed can help put NICE guidance into practice.

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Have your say Comment on our preterm labour and birth quality standard Our draft quality standard on preterm labour and birth is now open for consultation. The quality standard covers care for women who are considered to be at risk of preterm labout and birth. It also covers diagnosing preterm labour. The consultation closes at5pm on Tuesday 24 May 2016.

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Get involved  Board meeting and NICE Question Time - Wednesday 18 May The next NICE Board Meeting and Public Question Time will take place at the Deafblind UK Conference Centre in Peterborough on Wednesday 18 May. Both sessions are open to the general public, with the question time providing the opportunity to raise any questions about our work.

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Help us develop guidelines on abdominal aortic aneurysm We're looking for lay members to help us develop guidelines on abdominal aortic aneurysm. Abdominal aortic aneurysm is a swelling of the aorta - the main blood vessel that leads away from the heart down through the abdomen to the rest of the body. The lay members will help ensure the views, experiences and interests of patients and carers are central to the committee's decision making.

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Into Practice  Take a look at examples of organisations putting NICE guidance into practice Oxfordshire Children’s Diabetes Service used our guidance to help provide education, insulin injections and carbohydrate counting for children and young with type 1 diabetes, and their families.

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How much can you save by following our case studies? Our new quality and productivity cost savings tool can help you estimate how much you could save by implementing some of our case studies. The tool is ideal for: business planning service delivery  estimating efficiency savings.

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Use our resource planner to help put our guidance into practice We’ve updated and improved our resource planner to help you put our guidance into practice. The planner: lists upcoming guidance with costs or savings for England  summarises the resource implications of published guidance. The tool has been improved following stakeholder feedback, and will be updated each month. For feedback or questions, please emailresourceimpactassessment@nice.org.uk

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New infographic on cord clamping  The Blood to Baby campaign has produced two infographics which summarise NICE's recommendations on delayed cord clamping. The first infographic can be used to provide information to women and families. The second can be used for training and to raise awareness.

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Updated posters published on NICE suspected cancer guidance Cancer Research UK, together with the RCGP, have published new posters on our suspected cancer guidance. The posters are available in infographic, text and tableformats, and have been updated following feedback. Healthcare professionals should use these new versions (marked version 2, March 2016) and take all November 2015 versions out of circulation. For further information email earlydiagnosis@cancer.org.uk

E-learning tools to help put our guidance into practice We have endorsed two new e-learning tools that can help you put our guidance into practice.  Arthritis Research UK has developed a free online programme on our osteoarthritis quality standard. The tool can help healthcare professionals treat patients with musculoskeletal pain.  Paediatric Musculoskeletal Matters is a learning resource to help support clinical assessment recommendations in a number of our guidelines.

Guidance, standards and advice      Guidance Routine preoperative tests for elective surgery support tools NICE Pathway  Controlled drugs: safe use and management support tools NICE Pathway Microwave ablation for treating liver metastases Balloon pulmonary angioplasty for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension Percutaneous interlaminar endoscopic lumbar discectomy for sciatica Percutaneous transforaminal endoscopic lumbar discectomy for sciatica Quality standards Antimicrobial stewardship Technology appraisals  Abiraterone for treating metastatic hormone-relapsed prostate cancer before chemotherapy is indicated Sacubitril valsartan for treating symptomatic chronic heart failure with reduced ejection fraction Topotecan, pegylated liposomal doxorubicin hydrochloride, paclitaxel, trabectedin and gemcitabine for treating recurrent ovarian cancer

NICE Eyes on Evidence - Issue 83 April 2016

This month in Eyes on Evidence

Prescribing safety in UK general practice
A cross-sectional study of patients from more than 500 UK general practices found high variation in potentially high-risk prescribing and provision of monitoring tests.

Drug efficacy in older people with multimorbidity
A US cohort study found that warfarin, beta-blockers, calcium channel blockers, renin–angiotensin system blockers, statins and thiazides reduced mortality when used for an indicated condition in older people with multimorbidity.

Testosterone preparations for men with hypogonadism
A cohort study of US and UK data found that men who used testosterone injections were at higher risk of cardiovascular events, death and hospitalisation than men who used testosterone gels, although the absolute risks were small.

Clinical outcomes in people with obstructive sleep apnoea
A large cohort study in the USA reported that both treated and untreated obstructive sleep apnoea were associated with an increased risk of death and of developing coronary heart disease, stroke or kidney dysfunction.

Older people’s views on advance care planning
A survey in the east midlands found that only 5% of people aged 65 years or older had been offered an opportunity to talk about advance care planning by a health or social care professional, although around a third said they would be interested in discussing the topic.

Evidence summaries from NICE’s Medicines and Prescribing Programme
NICE has recently published summaries on:

• Prevention of chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting in adults: netupitant/palonosetron
• Hypertension in adults: intensive or standard blood-pressure control?
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: comparative safety and efficacy of long-acting inhaled agents
• Psychotropic drug prescribing for people with learning disabilities
• Medication underuse in older people: pharmaceutical care interventions
• Medicines optimisation: key therapeutic topics (2016 update) 

Kent Public Health Observatory Health and Social Care Bulletin 1st April 2016

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

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