Evidence, advice, guidance and standards

Healthcare Improvement Scotland is an authority on the development of evidence-based advice, guidance and standards.

We support improvements in the quality of healthcare people receive through our quality indicators. In the last year we have published on hepatitis C infection, cancer, out-of-hours care and pulmonary resuscitation care. 

Our quality indicators focus on:

• prevention
• testing and assessment
• treatment and support,
• and service organisation.

Watch a short film about our evidence work

Want to see more? Access the full film here.

We collaborate with national and international experts to identify, develop and share evidence for improvement. This evidence is accessible to healthcare professionals to support them in providing safe and effective care, and to the public to inform them of the quality of care they can expect to receive.

We also assess new technologies in healthcare through the Scottish Health Technologies Group, and the clinical and cost effectiveness of newly licensed medicines through the Scottish Medicines Consortium.

The national standards we develop use Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) guidelines, and may also draw on sources such as National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines, evidence notes, health technology assessments and systematic reviews.

Following publication of our standards, we continue to work with NHS boards and voluntary organisations to support their implementation and, consequently, improvements to patient care.