"NICE guidelines are evidence-based recommendations for health and care in England. They set out the care and services suitable for most people with a specific condition or need, and people in particular circumstances or settings. Our guidelines help health and social care professionals to: prevent ill health. promote and protect good health. improve the quality of care and services."*
*NICE guidelines | NICE guidance | Our programmes | What we do | About | NICE
NICE guidance is integral to the clinical care that we offer as Health Care Professionals (HCPs). It is important to consider the evidence bases for all pathways, tests and procedures that we undertake.
NICE has produced an interactive pathway on their website to guide clinical teams, along with comprehensive guidance on the diagnosis and treatment of asthma. It is important to familiarise ourselves with this work prior to any clinical development projects.
In November 2017, NICE published Asthma: diagnosis, monitoring and chronic asthma management (NG80 - access it here). In this clinical guideline, FeNO is recommended for use in the diagnosis of asthma in adults and for consideration in certain children over 5 years old. You can review the wider NICE pages on Asthma diagnosis by following this link; Diagnosis | Diagnosis | Asthma | CKS | NICE
NICE has also provided resources and tools that complement their Asthma Guidelines
For specific guidance on use of FeNO in diagnosis of asthma you can review NICE Diagnostic Guidance 12 (DG12) at DG12 - Measuring fractional exhaled nitric oxide concentration in asthma: NIOX MINO, NIOX VERO and NObreath | Guidance | NICE
The NHS England/Improvement South West Respiratory Clinical Network has developed a pragmatic guide for those introducing the use of FeNO to their practice - Access it here (please note the FeNO programme does not endorse this guide, but is sharing it as one example of a guide for others considering a similar document). With Thanks to the NHSEI South West Respiratory Clinical Network for allowing us to share this example of their work.
We have also pulled together a summary of the relevant policies for your information.