Clinical tools and measure

About a repository of clinical data standards, assessment forms and scales.

Ever been asked how to get copies of a clinical assessment tool survey, scale or measure? Due to the intellectual property and copyright typically associated with these, this can be rather a minefield.

Fortunately the National Clinical Content Repository National Clinical Content Repository Tools and Measures Library not only lists copyrighted clinical assessment tools and outcome measures for use within health and social care, but enables NHS and partner organisations to licence them for local use, including within Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems.

This service has been set up to encourage standardised data collection and reduce licensing costs. The provision of licences which permit EHR integration also helps reduce variation in the use of these tools in practice, thereby facilitating sharing and collation of outcomes data. 

Your organisation will need to be registered with the service to use it. It is worth checking with your Trust’s Chief Information Officer to see if yours is already registered. If in doubt email [email protected]. 

Registration is straightforward - you complete a Sub-Licence General Terms Agreement to agree to the terms of the licence, and there is a nominal fee of £1 which is not charged. Once registered, you can complete the Content Request Form, to request permissions to re-use the tool you require. There are common sense rules about use and re-use of the tools.

Another source which may be helpful is the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Best Practice calculators list.