Want to research a health condition, but don’t know where to look? Worried about a generic Google search bringing up lots of irrelevant and misleading info? Then you might want to check out ‘NICE’.
‘NICE’ stands for National Institute of Health and Care Excellence. They provide national guidance and advice to improve health and social care. They review the literature, evidence, and research available about various health conditions/diseases and produce guidance to facilitate the effectiveness of health services, individual clinical practice and ultimately the clients’ outcomes.
The guidelines are written for healthcare professionals, those who commission health services and for patients, as well as their families and carers. This makes it a great tool if you want to research a health condition and get well researched and guidance back.
Check out the NICE website and put the condition/problem you’re interested in into the health search bar www.nice.org.uk. You might choose to read the whole document or perhaps just the summary.
Either way, it may help you feel more empowered about making decisions about your care, asking questions about how your health condition is being managed or what treatments might be available by using ‘NICE’ to research a health condition. Knowledge is power people! Just bear in mind that sometimes, although there may be ‘insufficient evidence’ to recommend a particular treatment option, it doesn’t necessarily mean it wouldn’t help. It may just mean there isn’t sufficient evidence to support its use at this time.
