Effectiveness, efficiency, and NICE

摘要

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) was established in England and Wales in 1999 to "provide guidance to the NHS on the use of selected new and established technologies." NICE synthesises evidence on the effectiveness and cost of treatments and reaches "a judgment as to whether, on balance, the intervention can be recommended as a cost-effective use of NHS resources." How has the institute measured up to these ambitious goals, and what has been learnt about the demands of an explicit process for assessing health technology?