ABSTRACT
One of the problems for most clinicians is that of obtaining relevant evidence. Published evidence is very disparate and may appear in many different journals or other publication sources and is therefore not easy to find or to find quickly. This has given rise to evidence based journals in which the searching, digesting and categorizing is already done. Plans for National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) were set out in the 1998 White Paper, "A First Class Service". Its main functions are: appraisal of new and existing technologies; development of clinical guidelines; and production and dissemination of clinical audit methodologies and information on good practice. The Commission for Health Improvement was recently replaced by Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection (CHAI) as of April 2002 and incorporated also the National Care Standards Commission's responsibilities for inspecting the private health sector and the Audit Commission's "value for money" studies in health.
