We welcome the editorial by Ashworth and Kordowicz on the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF).1 The Department of Health appointed the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to manage a new process for developing QOF indicators from April 2009. The new NICE process has a number of significant changes that should lead to the QOF acting as a vehicle for quality improvement and deliver more rigorously developed QOF indicators.
First, NICE is an independent …