The NICE way of influencing health spending: a conversation with Sir Michael Rawlins. Interview by Nicholas Timmins.

Ten years ago the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) was set up to recommend to the National Health Services in England and Wales which treatments and procedures it should and should not pay for and to publish treatment guidelines. As the United States moves to engage in more study of the comparative effectiveness--and possibly the cost-effectiveness--of treatments, Sir Michael Rawlins, chairman of NICE since its inception, reflects on the lessons. A possible surprise: on balance, NICE has added to costs.