11. Professor David Haslam

NICE may seem very remote to GPs, but Professor Haslam is trying valiantly to bring the institute back down to earth.

In the past year, the GP, who formerly practised in Cambridgeshire, has set up a ‘reference panel’ of GPs to inform the development of NICE guidelines, an idea that is his own brainchild.

Talking at a Pulse roundtable discussion in June, the NICE chair said that the new reference panel would give ‘GPs the opportunity to tell us if our guidelines need improving’.

And this is badly needed following years of disputes over controversial guidelines changes, such as those for primary prevention of CVD, diabetes and asthma diagnosis.

Professor Haslam has also overseen the first NICE multimorbidity guideline last year – a widely acclaimed attempt to reconcile the overtreatment caused by disease-specific guidelines – and has continued to bring his broad perspective as a GP to the institute.

Over the next year, Professor Haslam says he will be will be looking at the impact of Brexit and reviewing the Government’s Life Sciences Strategy.

Why influential

Chairs the guideline setting organisation NICE

What he says

‘We’re going to need an expert generalist, supported by consultants, who don’t take over. That is the model we’re heading for’

Random fact

Often confused with the chair of the National Obesity Forum