NICE considers preventative treatment for breast cancer

The National Health Service is considering giving women with a strong family history of breast cancer treatment to prevent the disease from developing.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is currently in the process of updating its clinical guideline on familial breast cancer[i]. Today (15 January), NICE has begun a consultation on a draft version of the guideline with new, provisional recommendations relating to genetic testing[ii], screening and the use of preventive treatments. The draft update also, for the first time, makes recommendations for people with a recent diagnosis of breast cancer who also have a family history of the disease.

Keeping up-to-date with Cochrane

The latest NEW and updated Cochrane Reviews have been added to our ‘Understanding Evidence‘ page.

Also available, for those who prefer not to be parted from their information whilst on the move – an iPad edition app for download.

BMJ: How to read a paper

14 January 2013

How to read a paper

A big ‘thank you’ to the BMJ who have identified a number of very useful articles that explain how to read and interpret different kinds of research papers:

• Papers that go beyond numbers (qualitative research) Trisha Greenhalgh, Rod Taylor
• Papers that summarise other papers (systematic reviews and meta-analyses) Trisha Greenhalgh
• Papers that tell you what things cost (economic analyses) Trisha Greenhalgh
• Papers that report diagnostic or screening tests Trisha Greenhalgh
• Papers that report drug trials Trisha Greenhalgh
• Statistics for the non-statistician. II: “Significant” relations and their pitfalls Trisha Greenhalgh
• Statistics for the non-statistician Trisha Greenhalgh
• Assessing the methodological quality of published papers Trisha Greenhalgh
• Getting your bearings (deciding what the paper is about) Trisha Greenhalgh
• The Medline database Trisha Greenhalgh

Map of Medicine: 5 new pathways for pain

The British Pain Society has launched five new pathways on the Map of Medicine to support commissioning and educate clinicians. The pathways may go on to inform the new NICE Quality Standard in pain.

The pathways are:

• Initial assessment and early management of pain
• Spinal pain
• Chronic widespread pain, including fibromyalgia
• Neuropathic pain
• Pelvic pain

“Referral rates and quality of care for patients with pain problems show a concerning variation. For the first time, commissioners, providers and patients now have access to evidence-based and high-quality pain pathways through the Map of Medicine.  This is the first step in driving down variation in care, whilst enabling providers and commissioners to be able to negotiate and influence pain services in the best possible way to support patient care”

The pathways are available to healthcare professionals and can be adapted for local clinical use using Map of Medicine’s unique localising software tools available to clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). To take advantage of the high-quality, peer-reviewed pathways visit the Map of Medicine.