NICE unites with global health leaders to highlight evidence-based healthcare

The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has joined a global initiative focused on bringing evidence-based healthcare to the fore worldwide.

NICE, along with six other global leaders in evidence-based healthcare, is set to launch the worldwide initiative in an effort to generate awareness of the need for improved evidence to inform healthcare policy, practice and decision making for better health outcomes.

The initiative, dubbed World Evidence-based Healthcare (EBHC) Day, will take place on 20 October and highlights the impact of EBHC on health research, policy, practice and patient outcomes.

“NICE plays a vital role to produce evidence-based guidelines and resources that help commissioners and frontline practitioners, patients and carers, make better informed decisions about health and social care policy and practice. We are therefore proud to support EBHC day,” said Professor Gillian Leng, Chief Executive at NICE.

“We must share best practice for using evidence to improve health outcomes across the globe, now more than ever. In light of the challenges we are all currently dealing with due to Covid-19, NICE is playing an active role in the WHO's Evidence Collaborative for COVID-19 which is reviewing a high volume of ongoing evidence to share with partners across this global network,” she added.

In a statement, NICE said that this year has further highlighted the importance of having the ability the use evidence in informing healthcare policy, as can be seen by the rapid implementation of effective hand washing and the correct use of PPE in the COVID-19 pandemic.

As researchers continue to advance vaccines for COVID-19, NICE added that international evidence synthesis organisations will be quickly synthesising the emerging evidence to help policymakers in their reviews of any potential candidates.

“World EBHC day is an opportunity for collaboration in the ever-evolving sphere of global health and will provide a platform to discuss and debate the challenges and innovations in evidence-informed approaches to improving health outcomes globally,” said Bianca Pilla, World EBHC DAY Committee Chair.

“As a global evidence community, we are working together to close this gap and overcome barriers to advance the use of reliable research evidence to address some of the world’s most serious health challenges,” Pilla added.