Thank you for your comment and sorry for the late response!
As far as I understand, there is no pre-existing pathway for laypeople to suggest topics for new panels, there is only the opportunity to contribute to ongoing ones. Taken from their website:
Decisions on which new topics to develop guidelines on, and in what order, are based on factors such as:
the priority given to the topic by commissioners and professional organisations, and organisations for people using services, their families and carers
the health and care burden, and the potential to improve outcomes and quality of life.
A topic selection oversight group at NICE considers topics for guideline development, taking these factors into account. NICE then discusses topics identified in this way with NHS England, the Department of Health and Social Care, and Public Health England, and a prioritised list is agreed by these 3 bodies.
I am currently trying to figure out the best way of tapping into this process.
When it comes to factoring in treatment cost—the point of my intervention is identifying which patients would benefit from being treated with lamotrigine (which is a generic drug) rather than SSRIs (which is what they are currently prescribed). My guess is that it should be cost-neutral (it’s replacing one generic drug with another), but I haven’t checked how much the respective medicine costs the NHS. I agree it would be worth doing.
Thank you for your comment and sorry for the late response!
As far as I understand, there is no pre-existing pathway for laypeople to suggest topics for new panels, there is only the opportunity to contribute to ongoing ones. Taken from their website:
I am currently trying to figure out the best way of tapping into this process.
When it comes to factoring in treatment cost—the point of my intervention is identifying which patients would benefit from being treated with lamotrigine (which is a generic drug) rather than SSRIs (which is what they are currently prescribed). My guess is that it should be cost-neutral (it’s replacing one generic drug with another), but I haven’t checked how much the respective medicine costs the NHS. I agree it would be worth doing.