COMMENTARY - POPULATION SCREENING IN THE NHS - A SYSTEMATIC PATHWAY FROM EVIDENCE TO POLICY FORMULATION

In 1994 the Chief Medical Officer of England set out a framework for t he evaluation and implementation of national screening programmes in t he National Health Service (NHS). The framework highlighted the import ance of the link between research evidence and the formulation of nati onal policy. It also stressed the necessity for monitoring, evaluation and quality control as integral components for all new screening prog rammes, There is now an established link between the Health Technology Assessment programme of the NHS Research and Development Directorate and the NHS's new policy advisory group, the National Screening Commit tee. The objective of this systematic approach is to ensure that scree ning programmes are not introduced into the NHS unless there is robust evidence that benefit outweighs harm. The Population Screening Panel, an advisory panel of the NHS Health Technology Assessment programme, has the responsibility for determining priorities in research on propo sed or existing population screening programmes. The National Screenin g Committee has a remit to consider this research evidence and to advi se government ministers and the NHS on the appropriateness of the impl ementation, development and modification of national screening program mes. The example of prostatic cancer screening is presented as an illu stration of how the NHS is developing a systematic approach to the imp lementation of screening policy based upon the strategic commissioning of research evidence.