In the biggest shake-up of NICE's HealthTech programme to date, the organisation has proposed major reforms to how it evaluates healthcare technology.
The changes aim to transform how medical devices, diagnostics and digital and AI health technologies are evaluated as the NHS moves from 'analogue to digital', ‘hospital to community’, and ‘treatment to prevention’.
A consultation has now begun on the proposed changes and comments can be submitted until Thursday 6 March 2025.
Key changes include:
- Merging three existing programmes into a single HealthTech programme.
- Introducing a lifecycle evaluation approach to consider technologies for early or routine use in the NHS, and consider those already in use.
- Making multi-tech assessments of similar technologies with the same purpose standard practice.
Merging
NICE is merging the interventional procedures, medical technologies evaluation and diagnostics assessment programmes to become one HealthTech programme.
The proposals are set to formalise the way NICE will evaluate technologies for early NHS use, previously described as early value assessments. Evaluation methods will flex to reflect what stage a technology or procedure is at in the lifecycle.
It is expected that multi-tech assessments of products will become the norm, helping the NHS make informed purchasing decisions when multiple products with the same purpose are available. When only one technology is available in the market though, a single technology assessment will be carried out.
Introducing
In a big move, the plans enable more products to be evaluated and remove the requirement for medical devices to be cost saving for them to be recommended for use in the NHS.
Instead, independent committees will assess all technologies based on cost-effectiveness and so will balance the cost of the technology with the benefits it brings to patients and the service, which may include savings or efficiencies.
Plans remove the requirement for medical devices to be cost saving for them to be recommended for use in the NHS
The move is part of a series of proposals to set up NICE’s HealthTech programme for the next decade and beyond as the health service moves from ‘analogue to digital’.
The proposed changes will improve the productivity of the NHS with the roll out of new technologies and digital approaches to help more people receive the care they need in the community.
Making
Mark Chapman, Director of HealthTech at NICE, emphasised the accelerated adoption as a key factor behind the move.
“We've already cut guidance development time without compromising quality. This is the next step,” Chapman said.
Chapman explains that the proposed new approach, including a multi-tech cost-effectiveness approach and revised assessment methods, will create opportunities for innovative solutions that previously might not have reached its independent committees for consideration because they weren’t cost saving.
Image credit: NICE