1. NICE Evidence Services
Fran Wilkie

2. Today’s session Overview of NICE Evidence Services
How the Evidence Information Services team works
Our frequently asked questions
Your questions
Overview of NICE Evidence services – with some time for hands on exploring, if you want it/need it.
Is there anything in particular you were hoping we’d cover today?
Please feel free to ask questions as we go along.

3. NICE Evidence Services
a set of services that provide access to high quality authoritative evidence and best practice
for everyone working in health and social care who make decisions about treatments, interventions or the use of resources
So what are they?
Managed by the Evidence Information Services team at NICE – a mixture of information specialists and programme managers – working with the NICE Digital Services team who manage the technology behind all the resources (a mixture of information specialists, business analysts and developers).
But really what are they?

4. Journals and databases
NICE Evidence search
Journals and databases
A-Z
HDAS
Clinical Knowledge Summaries (CKS)
BNF and BNFc
All accessible from
I’m assuming/hoping that you all use these?
Has anyone not come across any of them?
OK – will talk a bit about how we manage each resource, with a quick chance to look at each in turn.

5. NICE Evidence search NB: image is link to live site
Has anyone not used the search?
If not, is there a reason why?
We use feedback all the time to try to improve it, for example, suggested content, unexpected results, more advanced search features such as intitle: searching.
Team at NICE who put together and look after this resource. Information specialists, technology specialists.
Part automated process for adding content, part manual process.
Suggestions for content are looked to see if they meet our exclusion criteria.
Go to live site and do some demo searches to highlight (do an empty search):
When I go out talking about Evidence search, I focus on the fact that it pulls together high quality resources to search for in one place – “all my work favourites”. Lots of emphasis on guidance, systematic reviews and evidence summaries – where other people have done the hard work for you.
Content of CKS and BNF/BNFc is included in the search – although you can go to those separately if you prefer.
And I focus on the Evidence Types filter, which really helps to narrow down the number of results you get.
It’s also a good source of patient information – pulls together all the sources that have the NHS England Information Standard – which you can find using the Information for the Public filter.
Designed to work with simple search language – although you can put in more complex searches, using Boolean, phrase searching, etc. Notes for advanced searchers.
Talk about student champions and the resources we have developed – presentations, scenario searches, worked examples, fastest fingers first quiz.
Could do the quiz, to check what people do and don’t know about ES? Check time, and what questions people have come with.

6. Journals and databases
Has anyone not used these resources?
NICE manages contracts on behalf of HEE for the NHS in England for journals and databases. HEE makes the decisions on what is purchased, and consults with NHS LKS staff. We’re just about to go out to tender for the next round of purchasing, which will come into effect from ???
NICE also manages the contracts for OpenAthens and for the link resolver, which together are used to make the purchased content accessible and discoverable.
There are a number of different content providers that are plugged into HDAS and linked via the link resolver – it’s a complex picture.
Lots of the enquiries we get at NICE are about OpenAthens access, and about content seemingly not available – so we have to do some triaging to make sure the query goes to the right people to sort it out.
NB image is hyperlinked to live site.
Can do some demo searching, if people want.
Does anyone have specific questions about using HDAS?
Also, link to supporting resources (help pages for HDAS, resources for administrators).

7. Clinical Knowledge Summaries
Anyone not used this resource?
It’s aimed at primary care, but gives a really good introduction to some topics.
Again, it’s a contract that NICE holds on behalf of the NHS in England.
Content is produced by an external company, but the micro-site is managed by NICE.
NB: image is hyperlinked to live site.
All the content is included in ES
Advantages (particularly feedback from the students we see on our student champion programme) are that they are consistently laid out, making it easy to know where to get the information you need, and fully referenced.
Can browse or search.
Do a demo, if needed.

8. BNF and BNFc Again, anyone not used these?
NICE holds the contract on behalf of the NHS in England.
Newly launched website, based on feedback.
We used to produce the apps, but they have now been relaunched and are provided by the people who publish the BNF.
Demo, if needed – browse or search.
NB – all the content is included in Evidence search.

9. Any more questions?