Dr Emma McFarlane works as a Technical Adviser at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in Manchester, UK. Having worked in Guideline Surveillance at NICE for over 10 years, Emma moved into to guideline development and led on the development and implementation of living guideline methods for NICE’s COVID-19 guidelines. Emma now has a leadership role within NICE’s Centre for Guidelines which involves leading on progressing and implementing methodological developments in systematic reviewing and guidelines.
Emma’s current area of interest include the potential opportunities for using artificial intelligence in systematic reviews. Emma has a broad range of research interests and has led on several projects including development of a framework for prioritising recommendations for living guidelines and a project exploring the lifespan of living guideline recommendations. Emma is currently the chair of the Guideline International Network (GIN) Accelerated Guidelines working group, as well as being a Steering Group member of the Collaboration, Updating and Guidelines in Medical Education working groups.
Emma has a keen interest in collaboration and sharing best practice in evidence synthesis and is a steering group member of the Manchester Evidence Synthesis Network with responsibility for developing programmes for quarterly network events. This network brings together more than 190 health researchers, guideline developers and policy makers from across Greater Manchester West with an interest in evidence synthesis.