Originally a one year pilot project funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) , the service was developed in collaboration with the Cochrane Group at the University of Bristol. We have built upon a successful demonstration project hosted by Kings College, London and operated within the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust. BESTinMH holds the broad aim of increasing evidence based health care, linking decision-making within the NHS, with high quality evidence.
BESTinMH has been active within AWP since April 2011. In this time we have received hundreds of questions around a huge variety of diagnoses and interventions. Many different professions have used the service; from Medical Consultants to Health Care Assistants. The summaries have been used for a range of purposes; from making decisions about the individual care of patients, to the design of clinical services. Questions have ranged from the examination of the efficacy of complex interventions, to the accuracy of diagnostic tests.
For BESTinMH project the emphasis is upon quality, we use validated secondary research tools that have been adopted from the Cochrane Collaboration, and worked with experts from the University of Bristol to develop the methods that we use. The project is led by Dr Julian Walker, Director of Research and Development for AWP, and Dr Rachel Churchill, Reader at the University of Bristol and Coordinating Editor for the Cochrane Group CCDAN (Cochrane Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis Group).
For more information about the project visit the Contact Us page and tell us what you would like to know.
