Aortic Dissection Awareness UKI is delighted to have been accepted as a “Stakeholder” within the NICE review process, on 23 April 2019.
NICE, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, is the body which produces Clinical Guidelines and Advice for use in the UK NHS. Clinical Guidelines are a consolidated summary of best practice, backed up by the latest evidence, and they are used by GPs and other Doctors across the UK to help them follow the considered best diagnoses and treatments for patients.
NICE’s guidelines are issued or updated after a review process which includes input from bodies with a special interest in a topic. Our ability to comment to NICE on matters affecting those with Aortic Disease is crucial to our drive to improve management of aortic disease.
We commented in 2018 on the updated guidelines for AAA – Abdominal Aortic Aneurysms – and a publication date is awaited, but we have now commented on the update on Blood Pressure Management, due for release this August. We know good B.P. control is a crucial aspect of aortic disease management, and have particularly made the point that sufferers from aortic disease need much tighter and immediate B.P. control than with practices based primarily on a general approach to the prevention of stroke, heart attack and heart failure. Aortic disease can strike much more suddenly and more catastrophically.
Our Stakeholder status also ensures we are advised in advance on new and updated Guidelines in preparation by NICE, and we look forward over the next couple of years to being able to put the AD perspective into upcoming guidelines including care through the admission/operation/recovery cycle, cardiovascular disease, atrial fibrillation management, long-term sickness absence and capability to work, shared decision making, and assessment and diagnosis of recent-onset chest pain.
We look forward to being able to put the AD case forward for you, the patient.