NICE International launches the International Decision Support Initiative

In November 2013, NICE International launched the international Decision Support Initiative (iDSI) to support low and middle income governments in making resource allocation decisions for healthcare.

Dr Kalipso Chalkidou, Director, NICE international said, “We are delighted to be part of the iDSI, a unique platform for engaging with and responding to the growing demand for evidence-informed decision-making processes. Drawing on our UK and global experience, and leveraging funds from additional sources, such as the Rockefeller Foundation, we look forward to working together with our UK and international partners and colleagues from overseas governments to realise the objective of equitable access to good quality affordable care for all those who need it. In doing so, we hope to demonstrate a workable and sustainable model for scaling up technical cooperation and two-way learning across healthcare policy makers and practitioners committed to Universal Healthcare Coverage.”

In the context of the Universal Coverage movement, iDSI aims to strengthen priority-setting institutions as a means of improving the quality and efficiency of health care. Functioning institutions and processes will make it possible for low and middle income governments to apply international and local evidence, and utilize local technical capacity in order to improve the efficiency and distributional impact of resource allocation decisions.

iDSI builds on the international work of NICE and HITAP and follows on from the 2012 CGD Priority Setting working group which articulated the need for systematic, fair and evidence informed priority setting mechanisms in healthcare and called for a series of actions iDSI aims to implement.

“People who decide how to spend health budgets hold the lives of many others in their hands,” says Amanda Glassman, director of the CGD global health program and co-author of the report. “With hope, the iDSI will better equip these decisions makers with fair, evidence-based recommendations on how to help as many people as possible with the resources available.”

We will be posting updates on the project in the CGD, NICE and HITAP and York websites as the project progresses.

View the iDSI strategic overview (PDF)

A global health vision for the International Decision Support Initiative: Rockefeller Bellagio Center, Italy

What would the world look like if the international Decision Support Initiative (iDSI), were successful? Decision makers around the world would be making the right choices for better health.

This is the mission for the iDSI – to guide decision makers to effective and efficient resource allocation strategies for improving people’s health.

This new vision and mission was an important outcome of a meeting convened by NICE International at the Rockefeller Bellagio Center, involving current and new partners of iDSI. From the discussions, iDSI also developed a new conceptual framework.

This framework will be used to evaluate the impact the IDSI has on institutional strengthening – leading to better decisions for better health across the world

iDSI Bellagio and Beyond Summary   

first iDSI Steering Group meeting