Knowledge @lert for Thursday 10th April
Tamiflu & Relenza: how effective are they?
Dr Fiona Godlee, Editor-in-Chief, BMJ, said: “This review is the result of many years of struggles to access and use trial data, which was previously unpublished and even hidden from view. It highlights with certainty that future decisions to purchase and use drugs, particularly when on a mass scale, must be based on a complete picture of the evidence, both published and unpublished.
Eyes on Evidence
April’s edition of Eyes on Evidence has been published by NICE. It includes the following items:
- E-cigarette awareness and use to quit smoking
- Beta-2 agonists and exercise-induced asthma
- Blood pressure control with home telemononitoring and pharmacist management
- Risk factors for congenital abnormalities
- Antidepressant use late in pregnancy and risk of postpartum haemorrhage
- CT scans in childhood or adolescence and risk of cancer
- Evidence Updates
How the CQC inspect, rate and regulate health and social care services – a consultation
The CQC are asking people who use and run health and adult social care services as well as the public to gather opinion on their plans for regulating, inspecting and rating care services. The consultation will be open until 4th June 2014.
Guidance policies and principles of healthcare engineering (HTM 00)
HTM 00, provides specific advice and guidance on the design, installation and effective operation of a healthcare facility from an engineering technology perspective. It is not intended to cover every possible scenario, for example the concept of “hospital at home” (in a domestic dwelling). The standards and principles it advocates may be appropriate to follow in all locations where healthcare is provided. This 2014 edition supersedes all previous versions of HTM 00.
Transparency of clinical trials data – The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology
Results from many clinical trials are not published or made available. Recently there have been calls for clinical trials data to be made more accessible. This briefing examines ways of achieving greater transparency and the issues that they raise.