NICE outraged by ousting of pain society president

doi:10.1136/bmj.b3028

Published 28 July 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3028
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3028

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NICE on back pain

NICE outraged by ousting of pain society president

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The British Pain Society has voted to force its president, ProfessorPaul Watson, out of office because some members disagreed witha recommendation in the recent guideline on low back pain fromthe National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)that he helped to develop.¹ The society’s sustained campaignagainst a highly respected pain management and rehabilitationexpert is shameful and professional victimisation of the worstkind.

All NICE guidelines are developed by independent clinical andpatient experts who give up their time and expertise over twoyears to produce robust, evidence based guidance. It is totallyunacceptable for guideline developers to be singled out andhave their professional integrity called into question simplybecause some groups don’t like a robust, evidence basedrecommendation that has been developed by a group of independentexperts.

The guideline developers’ only aim is to help to improvethe care and treatment of . . . [Full text of this article]

Michael Rawlins, chairman¹, Peter Littlejohns, clinical and public health director¹

¹ National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), London WC1V 6NA

nice@nice.org.uk

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