Clinical Effectiveness Group

The Clinical Effectiveness Group (CEG) was established jointly by the Medical Society for the Study of Venereal Diseases (MSSVD) and the Association for Genitourinary Medicine (AGUM) in October 1997. The two parent Societies undertook to jointly finance the work of the group for one year in the first instance.

The group is made up as follows: two members nominated by the MSSVD; two nominated by AGUM; one person nominated by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) GU Medicine Committee and a Chair of the National Audit Group jointly nominated by AGUM and MSSVD.

Dr Keith Radcliffe (Chair)

Whittall Street Clinic, Birmingham (MSSVD)

Dr. Jan Welch

King’s College Hospital, London (MSSVD)

Dr. Imtyaz Ahmed-Yusuf

Nottingham City Hospital (AGUM)

Dr. Mark FitzGerald

Taunton & Somerset (AGUM)

Dr. Guy Rooney

Swindon & Oxford (Royal College of Physicians)

Dr. David Daniels

West Middlesex Hospital (Chair, National Audit Group)

The remit of the group is to produce and update evidence-based National Guidelines and standards for UK specialists in genitourinary medicine. The first 24 such guidelines were published in the supplement to the August 1999 edition of the journal Sexually Transmitted Infections. These guidelines were updated in 2002 and the revised versions published on the AGUM and MSSVD websites. The Group continues to develop new guidelines, to update the existing guidelines, on a rolling basis, and to co-ordinate and promote audit in GU Medicine through the National Audit Group which is a sub-group of the CEG.

The CEG is also involved in producing standards for UK specialists, both for the performance of their services and also to assess the performance of individual specialists.

The 2 parent societies, AGUM and MSSVD, jointly finance the Group on a rolling annual basis.

The CEG serves as an advisory and co-ordinating body for guidance relating to GU Medicine practice produced by various external organisations, e.g., the British National Formulary, the PRODIGY Project (which produces software to guide general practitioners in clinical decision making) and the Public Health Laboratory Service.

Members of the Group also sit on the Royal College of Physicians’ Clinical Effectiveness Evaluation Unit, on the NICE Collaborating Centre for Womens & Childrens Health (hosted by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in London), and on the British HIV Association’s Audit Group.