Mike Clark, a man who’s in the business of research and evidence based practice, looks at an Australian study about policy makers’ use of research evidence. He discovers what some of the cultural and practical barriers are and thinks about the UK context.
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Martin Webber takes on a systematic review about choice and decision-making in health and social care by people with disabilities and long term conditions and, among other things, finds relevant evidence for personalisation and inspection.
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Autonomy is defined as the freedom to determine one’s own actions or behaviour. It is a value at the heart of health and social care support and those supporting people with learning disabilities are constantly striving to maintain and indeed increase the autonomy of those they provide help to. The authors of this Netherlands based [read the full story…]
While this commentary is based on Canadian experiences, the authors do look at examples of health technology assessments elsewhere, applying the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as the gold standard for others to follow. Health technology assessments are “an evidence-based policy tool that helps inform decision-making on how to balance demand and [read the full story…]
A new report from the Kings Fund, Delivering better services for people with long-term conditions: building the house of care, shares learning from the “house of care” model which was developed through the Year of Care programme and discussed in a recent workshop and series of interviews. The “house of care” metaphor is used to [read the full story…]
This paper describes the development of a framework to help commissioners make effective decisions with regards to local resource allocation decisions. The aim is to reduce variation in prescribing patterns across England, also known as the ‘postcode lottery.’ While the framework was originally developed by the former National Prescribing Centre, which is now the Medicines [read the full story…]
The authors of this paper found that the way people search for evidence relating to commissioning decisions varies, depending on their professional background. That is why this paper is particularly pertinent to commissioners, policy decision-makers, health managers, and medical librarians, who have the necessary skills to help staff working in commissioning to find the best [read the full story…]
Introduction This study, carried out in Scotland, is relevant to commissioners and general practitioners, as it demonstrates why there are variations in prescribing practice, and how these can be managed. The authors have noticed that there is “significant variation in the quality of prescribing” and they have carried out an ethnographic study into why [read the full story…]
Earlier this week, we posted about a study by Dr Tuffrey-Wijne and her colleagues which described the process of the development of guidelines to support decision making about disclosure or non-disclosure of bad news about life limiting illness to people with learning disabilities. That study was part of a broader programme of research that has [read the full story…]
Rational commissioning This report describes a project, led by Right Care, to involve surgeons in the commissioning decision-making process, because observations made by the Department of Health and Surgical Specialty Associations showed that there were inconsistencies in the rates of elective surgical procedures between Primary Care Trusts, and that sometimes existing surgical procedures were “classified [read the full story…]
