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Dear Colleagues Some of you may be interested to know that NICE's technology appraisal process will be reviewed in June and July by an international team selected by WHO. Their report should be published in late summer 2003. Excerpt of press release below. Full press release at http://www.nice.org.uk/pdf/2003_020WHOreviewofNICEtechnologyappraisals.pdf Best wishes David McDaid LSE Health and Social Care The World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations specialised agency for health, will this week begin an independent peer review of the Institute's technology appraisal programme. The review will be carried out by a panel of international experts who will assess the work of the Institute in developing guidance on the use of medicines and other treatments for people using the NHS in England and Wales, against the highest international criteria for quality. NICE has invited WHO to carry out this review following recommendations made last year in a report on the Institute's work by the House of Commons' Health Select Committee. The Health Select Committee recommended that the Government should instigate an independent detailed peer review of the Institute's work. Andrew Dillon, Chief Executive of NICE, said: "We are delighted that the World Health Organization have agreed to carry out an independent peer review of the Institute's work. We welcome external review of our work as a means of helping us, where required, to improve the quality of our work. The World Health Organization is a distinguished body, and a review under its auspices must be regarded as both robust and objective."