1. Clinical Knowledge Summaries Overview

2. What is CKS?
A service that provides ready access to digestable clinical knowledge about the common conditions managed in primary and first contact care.
Aims to help healthcare professionals make evidence-based decisions about the healthcare of their patients and provide them with the know-how to put these decisions into action.
CKS is developed for:
‘Generalist’ healthcare professionals – GPs, GP registrars, nurse practitioners, practice nurses, health visitors, district nurses
Medical librarians
NHS managers, students, other healthcare professionals and patients also find it a useful resource. 2

3. What does CKS provide?
Knowledge on clinical topics about common acute and chronic diseases, and disease prevention
Quick answers — concise summaries on how to manage over 500 common clinical situations (scenarios)
Detailed answers — that clearly link recommendations to the evidence on which they are based and the source documents
Patient information
KnowledgePlus — additional useful information to support clinical practice
DynaMed provides up to date evidence summaries on almost 2,000 clinical topics. It is developed by a team based in Ipswich, Massachusetts in the USA and owned by EBSCO publishing. DynaMed may provide useful information for topics not covered by CKS. 3

4. How does CKS help?
Finds and considers the relevant literature on a topic – guidelines; systematic reviews; primary studies; national policy documents (e.g. from the HPA and the DH); resources such as Clinical Evidence, DTB, BNF; as well as expert consensus and opinion.
Summarises the current knowledge and makes it available in one place.

5. How does CKS help? Answers clinical questions:
At the point of decision making
For continual professional development and learning
Helps you prescribe rationally and safely
Supports the development of local protocols, patient group directions, and care pathways
Supports teaching and training

6. www.cks.library.nhs.uk Accessing CKS Can also be accessed:
Through the National Library for Health website
Through web-enabled mobile technologies
Through some primary care clinical systems
Simple ways to access CKS are to:
Put CKS into Google and it comes top
Create a desktop shortcut or internet favourite – the CKS button makes it easily identifiable! 6

7. PRODIGY and CKS CKS builds on the existing PRODIGY knowledge base.
PRODIGY guidance (full text and quick reference guides) will initially be available through CKS.
PRODIGY guidance will gradually be replaced by Topic Reviews over a period of 3 years.
PRODIGY guidance will be kept up-to-date until replaced.
PRODIGY Knowledge was provided to healthcare professionals by the DH/NHS from 1998 to The CKS service is evolving and enhancing the PRODIGY knowledge base. 7

8. KnowledgePlus In addition to clinical topics CKS provides:
What is circulating in your area?
Test of the week
Gems from the Cochrane Library
Medico-legal information
Patient safety information
Podcasts on ‘hot topics’
Add stuff from the website 8

9. Patient information
To print out and give to patients, CKS provides quality assured patient information from:
NHS Direct
fpa (Family Planning Association)
….and others in the future

10. Key features of CKS
Practical the practical know how to allow you to action the recommendations
Transparent links from the recommendations to the underpinning evidence
Robust editorial processes that ensure the evidence is based on the best available evidence and is kept up-to-date

11. Key feature 1: Providing practical ‘know how’
Most guidelines tell you the what and when to do e.g. whether to prescribe an antibiotic.
CKS also tells you how to put a recommendation into action — down to the level of which drug to prescribe, at what dose and for how long.

12. Key feature 2: Linking the recommendations to the evidence
Each recommendation has a ‘Basis of recommendation’ that briefly describes the type, quantity and quality of the underpinning evidence
The Basis of recommendation links to a summary of the evidence (where appropriate)
The evidence summaries (and Basis of recommendation) are referenced and the references link to the full text source documents where available
So in just a few clicks you can go from the recommendation to the evidence that underpins it

13. Key feature 3: Trusting CKS
Developing content
Independent of the pharmaceutical industry
Knowledge developed by a skilled multidisciplinary team with experience of primary and emergency care
Draft topics are reviewed by experts, professional organisations, patient groups and other providers of knowledge to the NHS (e.g. BNF)
Editorial processes overseen by an eminent steering group — includes individuals nominated from RCGP, GPC, CILIP, RCN, CfH/ANP, Practice Nurse Association, Nurse Practitioner Association, NHS Direct and the Centre of Evidence Based Medicine (Oxford)

14. Key feature 3: Trusting CKS
Updating content
Each topic is formally reviewed every 3 years
Interim updates are guided by a continuous systematic literature surveillance programme

15. Thank you