Annual evidence updates - October 2009

The NHS Evidence Specialist Collections have been developed to identify and meet the information needs of particular communities of practice. They are web-based collections containing clinical and non-clinical information on the major health priority areas. Each specialist collection identifies and provides access to quality assessed information of relevance to the community that it serves.

An aspect of this involves the production of Annual Evidence Updates, which aim to highlight the best current evidence for selected healthcare topics. Annual Evidence Updates consist of the good quality evidence from a search of research evidence on a particular topic over a 12 month period, plus user-friendly summaries written by relevant experts, and links to guidelines, secondary research and primary research, if applicable. All information included in Annual Evidence Updates has been subject to rigorous selection criteria.

The calendar of currently confirmed Annual Evidence Updates until March 2010 is available here. The following updates are scheduled scheduled for October:

Heart failure (cardiovascular specialist collection) w/b 5th October
This update for health professionals and patients will include guidance and systematic reviews published since the 2008 update, together with the latest website resources. A team of expert reviewers will summarise advances in diagnosis and treatments, providing healthcare professionals with easy access to the latest evidence.

Depression (mental health specialist collection) w/b 5th October
The AEU is divided up into sections on:

• Incidence and prevalence
  
• Diagnosis, prevention and screening
  
• Pharmacological treatments
  
• Psychological therapies
  
• Transcranial magnetic stimulation
  
• Complementary and alternative treatments
  
• Populations and settings
  
• Genetics

CAM for depression (complementary and alternative medicine specialist collection) w/b 5th October
The aim of the 2009 Annual Evidence Update on CAM for Depression is to identify, organise and present the most up-to-date evidence for this topic. It will include a summary of the evidence from systematic reviews and RCTs published between July 2008 and August 2009.

Breast cancer (cancer specialist collection) w/b 12th October
This is the fifth Annual Evidence Update on breast cancer. It presents the results of a search for new guidance and systematic reviews that have appeared since October 2008. This Update provides commentaries from the Breast Cancer Advisory Panel, which comprises leading health professionals in breast cancer care. Examples of topic areas covered include:

• Sentinel node identification and classification after neoadjuvant chemotherapy-a systematic review and meta-analysis
• Magnetic resonance imaging of ductal carcinoma in situ: what is its clinical application?
  
• Breast cancer presentation and survival in relation to ethnicity and social deprivation
  
• Fertility related concerns of women with breast cancer
  
• Management of hot flushes for women with treatment-induced menopause

The AEU will bring together significant new evidence, links to patient information and external resources in order to fully cover the last twelve months of clinical and research-based activity in breast cancer.

Ethnicity/ inequality (ethnicity and health specialist collection) w/b 19th October
This Annual Evidence Update will feature four exclusive articles based on current evidence:

• Obesity and south Asian children
  
• Cancer among BME groups – perspective of the National Cancer Action Team
  
• Mental Health
  
• Ethnic groups and prescribing – pharmacovigilance and genetic diversity

System reform (health management specialist collection) w/b 26th October
This update provides an opportunity to bring together up-to-date knowledge and evidence about several key strands of NHS reform published since the last AEU on system reform in October 2008. The key strands are:

• patient choice
• payment by results
• commissioning
• foundation trusts
• alternative providers (including independent and third sector)
• regulation