UK Sources
NHS Evidence
The principle aim of the NHS Evidence service is to provide easy access to a comprehensive evidence base for everyone in health and social care who takes decisions about treatments or the use of resources - including clinicians, public health professionals, commissioners and service managers - thus improving health and patient care. It provides access to a range of information types, including primary research literature, practical implementation tools, guidelines and policy documents. It incorporates the findings of major programmes including:
- Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
- UK Database of Uncertainties about the Effects of Treatments (DUETS)
- Guidelines and Audit Implementation Network (GAIN)
- National Library of Guidelines (NLG)
- NHS Clinical Knowledge Summaries (CKS)
- NHS National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)
- NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (QIS) Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN)
- National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Centre for Reviews and Dissemination (CRD)
- National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme
- National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Services & Delivery Research Programme (HS&DR)
- Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE)
Website: http://www.evidence.nhs.uk/
PDQ Evidence
PDQ ("pretty darn quick")-Evidence facilitates rapid access to the best available evidence for decisions about health systems. It includes systematic reviews, overviews of reviews (including evidence-based policy briefs), primary studies included in systematic reviews and structured summaries of that evidence.
Website: http://www.pdq-evidence.org/en/
COMET Initiative
The COMET (Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials) Initiative brings together people interested in the development and application of agreed standardised sets of outcomes, known as ‘core outcome sets’. These sets represent the minimum that should be measured and reported in all clinical trials of a specific condition, and are also suitable for use in clinical audit or research other than randomised trials. The existence or use of a core outcome set does not imply that outcomes in a particular trial should be restricted to those in the relevant core outcome set. Rather, there is an expectation that the core outcomes will be collected and reported, making it easier for the results of trials to be compared, contrasted and combined as appropriate; while researchers continue to explore other outcomes as well. COMET aims to collate and stimulate relevant resources, both applied and methodological, to facilitate exchange of ideas and information, and to foster methodological research in this area.
Website: http://www.comet-initiative.org/
PROSPERO
Launched in February 2011, this international register aims to improve the transparency of health research. This is the first online facility to register systematic reviews for research about health and social care from around the world. It is designed to avoid the duplication of health research and will act as a guard against selective reporting of research. The register is free and open to the public. It was started by the National Institute for Health Research and the Centre for Reviews and Dissemination which is funded by the Department of Health.
Website: http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/
NHS National Research Register (NRR) Archive
The archive is a searchable copy of the records that used to be held in the National Research Register (NRR) Projects Database. It was created using the final issue of the NRR published in October 2007, based on records collected up to September 2007.
The archive does not include the MRC Clinical Trials Directory nor the CRD Register of Reviews. These used to be bundled in with the National Research Register Projects Database.
The National Research Register was a public database of ongoing and recently completed research projects funded by, or of interest to, the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS).