biology

NHS Evidence

NHS Evidence is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand NHS Evidence rather than just read about it. In short: NHS Evidence was a UK health care evidence search service that enabled users to access clinical and non-clinical evidence and best practice information through its web-based portal. Its purpose was to help users within the National Health Service (NHS), public health and social care sectors in decision-making by fostering evidence-based practices.

Key takeaways

NHS Evidence belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect NHS Evidence to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of NHS Evidence from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

NHS Evidence was a UK health care evidence search service that enabled users to access clinical and non-clinical evidence and best practice information through its web-based portal. Its purpose was to help users within the National Health Service (NHS), public health and social care sectors in decision-making by fostering evidence-based practices. NHS Evidence was managed by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). It was created in 2008 and as of 2024 is no longer in operation; NICE directs would-be users to alternate services on its website.

Origins The service was created as part of a broader initiative by the government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown "to improve quality of care" provided by the National Health Services (NHS) to the public. It was established in April 2009 as part of Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Lord Darzi's strategy report on the future of the NHS commissioned by the Brown government, entitled "High-Quality Care for All". In his report, Darzi identified the need for better information access to improve services.

Capabilities NHS Evidence allowed users to search over 100 health and social care databases simultaneously, including The Cochrane Library, the British National Formulary and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. Users could search in clinical areas and in demographic and policy subjects, including topics related to inequalities in services available to different population groups. Its budget in 2009/2010 was £19,433,000. In 2010/2011, it was £24,438,000.

Resources Information available via NHS Evidence included clinical and public health guidance, government policy, patient data, pharmacological data, systematic reviews, primary research, and grey literature. There were six 'lots', or categories, of data available as defined by NICE, organized by type of source. These categories were: 1) print journals; 2) electronic journals; 3) print books; 4) electronic books; 5) databases; and 6) aggregated evidence summaries. Source providers were as follows: 123Doc; BMJ; Wiley-Blackwell; Coutts; Dawson; EBSCO; Oxford University Press; Ovid; Pharmaceutical Press; ProQuest; Tomlinsons; and Waterstone.

NICE The acronym "NICE" refers to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, a special health authority that was initially responsible for maintaining the evidence search service. Following the Health and Social Care Act 2012, NICE was renamed the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and changed from a special health authority to an executive non-departmental public body. NICE International was established in 2008 to help cultivate links with foreign governments and universities in the UK and abroad. NICE International has received financial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation. Part of its process involves the publication of case studies.

See also The Norwegian Electronic Health Library (Helsebiblioteket.no) is a similar public website for health professionals and students.

References

External links NHS Evidence [archived from original] National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) NICE International Development of a Search Strategy for an Evidence Based Retrieval Service [journal article]

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with NHS Evidence

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what NHS Evidence claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to NHS Evidence before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about NHS Evidence ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of NHS Evidence

In research: NHS Evidence appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses NHS Evidence in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: NHS Evidence is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics British medical websites, Defunct National Health Service organisations, Evidence-based medicine, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for NHS Evidence outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “NHS Evidence” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study NHS Evidence in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what NHS Evidence means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain NHS Evidence out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is NHS Evidence in simple terms?

Why does NHS Evidence matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study NHS Evidence?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on NHS Evidence.