Web site of the month: NICE Clinical Knowledge Summaries

The relaunched Clinical Knowledge Summaries service aims to provide primary care clinicians (and others) with a readily accessible summary of the latest evidence, as well as practical guidance on current best practice in relation to the 300 most commonly seen disease presentations in primary care.

You can browse the CKS by clinical topic on a simple A-Z list, as well as searching.

There is also the option to browse by Clinical Speciality, where you can look at wider clinical topics, for example mental health, cancer or musculoskeletal.

CKS for Depression

Once you have found the topic you are interested in, the information is broken down into a number of sections that include a summary and background information, as well as diagnosis.

There are further sections with management scenarios (for example with a new diagnosis or ongoing cases) as well as practical prescribing information including dosage recommendations, adverse effects and contraindications. You can even link to the evidence used to formulate the summary.

The CKS are reviewed and updated when significant new evidence emerges and NICE aim to add up to 10 new topics every year. CKS is a simple, practical, evidence based resource for front line staff in primary care and beyond.