It maintains databases of literature reviews and economic evaluations and maintains registers of reviews in progress. There is also an information and enquiry service. The CRD issues Effective Health Care Bulletins in collaboration with the Nuffield Institute and the Royal College of Physicians. In promoting action on clinical effectiveness, in England, the Kings Fund are looking at both leg ulcers and pressure sores. This is called the Wound Management Practice Resource Centre and is a source of free, independent information on dressings and medical devices.
Clinical guidelines are available from many national sources.
Policies and guidelines are available from many local trusts. The pharmaceutical industry already produces algorithms, clinical pathways and care maps. There is a challenge here to the national organisations, the Tissue Viability Society, the Wound Care Society, the European Wound Management Association and the European Tissue Repair Society, to produce independently evaluated information based on evidence based practice. The guide should be printed in a size which can be carried in a pocket, or incorporated into an existing handbook, and regularly consulted. It must be readily updatable and have an index.