National Institute for Health and Care Excellence

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is part of the Department of Health and Social Care. It was set up in 1999 under Tony Blair. It was first called National Institute for Clinical Excellence. It studies the costs and effect of medical treatment. The NHS in England and Wales has to give patients the treatments it recommends. Companies sometimes lower their prices to get their treatments accepted. It tests ways of treating different diseases.
It uses quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) as a way of measuring the cost-effectiveness of treatments. This measures not just length of life but quality of life.
In 2012 it was asked to include social care in its work.