Dear Editor
The article Managing risk from conflicts of interest in guideline development committees by Lisa Parker and Lisa Bero, while laudable in its aim to highlight some of the current issues facing guideline committees in managing these risks, and the consequences of not doing so, nevertheless fails to acknowledge the robust and comprehensive arrangements that NICE has in place to do just that.
It is regrettable that the authors chose not to go beyond merely referencing NICE’s guideline development manual to actually accessing NICE’s policy on declaring and managing interests for NICE advisory committees, publicly available at https://www.nice.org.uk/Media/Default/About/Who-we-are/Policies-and-proc…. Had they done so, they would have been presented with an example of a process in line with the recommendations they make in their article, supporting a culture within NICE in which we are transparent about the interests of those who are members of, or work with, our advisory committees, so that the effect of interests is known, understood and managed. In doing so it ensures that our advisory committees have access to the appropriate expertise on the areas under consideration, while minimising the risks to their perceived ability to objectively consider the evidence.
NICE is justifiably proud of the global reputation its guidelines have for their quality and useability – a reputation that is in no small way grounded in the rigour and transparency of the process which underpins them.
Re: Managing risk from conflicts of interest in guideline development committees