Gro Jamtvedt,
    Executive Director, NOKC

History and structure
The centre was founded 1 January 2004 and is based upon a merger of the following organizations: The Norwegian Centre for Health Technology Assessment (SMM), parts of the Division for Knowledge Management in The Directorate for Health and Social Affairs, and the Foundation for Health Services Research (HELTEF). The centre is organized into five groups, management and staff.

The tasks of the five groups:
Group 1: Patient experiences surveys, patient reported measurements (Øyvind Andresen Bjærtnes, Research Director)
Group 2: Output of the healthcare: clearing house for quality indicators and coordination of clinical registries (to be appointed, Research Director)
Group 3: HTA, reviews and dissemination, development of decision support resources (Signe Flottorp, Research Director)
Group 4: HTA, reviews, and dissemination, method support Campbell Collaboration (Atle Fretheim, Research Director)
Group 5: HTA, reviews and dissemination, method support Cochrane Collaboration (Inger Natvig Norderhaug, Research Director)
Group 6: Norwegian electronic health library (Helsebiblioteket) - established January 1, 2006 (Magne Nylenna, Editor)
Group 7: HTA, reviews, dissemination, and cost-benefit analysis. The group was established in April 2006 and focuses on pharmaceuticals (Marianne Klemp Gjertsen, Research Director).

Mission
The Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services gathers and disseminates evidence about the effect and quality of methods and interventions within all parts of the health services. The uptake of this evidence by the health services is also an important goal for the Centre's activities.

How NOKC works
Among the central tasks of NOKC are:
- HTA reports
- Systematic reviews (Cochrane and others)
- Overviews of overviews
- Early warnings
- Surveys
- Informed Choice Research.

The Centre will also be assigned important tasks when it comes to monitoring of clinical practice:
- Clinical registries
- Outcome indicators.

Dissemination activities
The Center publishes reports that are disseminated to defined target groups - clinicians, health policy makers, administrators, media and the general public.
All publications are available through our web pages. Workshops and seminars for target groups as well as teaching is also part of our dissemination activities. A quarterly newsletter is being planned and the work to further develop our web-pages will continue.

If you are looking for publications from the former SMM, these can be found at NOKC's website www.nokc.no.

Current projects (a selection)

• Psychosocial interventions at crises, accidents and disasters
• Indoor environment factors and risk for asthma and allergy  
• Hospital volume and quality of health outcome - an update of a previous SMM-report 
• Treatment of depression 
• Human papilloma virus (HPV) testing in cervical cancer screening    
• Benzodiazepines in the treatment of alcohol dependence 
• Obstructive sleep apnea among adults  (Joint Nordic project) 
• Proton therapy 
• Rehabilitation of breast cancer patients
• Suicide prevention among patients in hospitals
• Radiofrequency ablation in treatment of atrial fibrillation;
• Replacement of dental amalgam
• Misoprostol for birth induction
• TNF-inhibitors in rheumatoid diseases
• Freestanding midwife led maternity units - given adequate selection, are they safe enough?
• Age determination in minor asylum seekers.

Future plans

• To combine information from HTA with outcome results from current practice
• To improve dissemination of results from national and international studies
• To increase knowledge about decision-making in health care
• To further develop out methodological base, by combining knowledge from HTA and Cochrane studies
• To provide insight in HTA for teachers in health professions, clinicians and health care management
• To support international collaboration.