On 18 June 2020 IPHS staff, led by Dr Paul Atkinson, held an online witness seminar on the origins and establishment of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE). NICE's mission was to promote consistency and equity in access to NHS services, something it pursued above all by producing health technology appraisals and guidelines.
We are studying the history of NICE under a funded extension to the Governance of Health project, for which we are grateful to the Wellcome Trust.
The event brought together seven witnesses to discuss the events leading to the establishment of NICE in 1997, and the early years of the new institution. Among those attending were members of patient groups and the pharmaceutical industry, NICE's first Chief Executive, Andrew Dillon, and first Chairman, Mike Rawlins.
A transcript of the event has now been published and is available here.