The 10 Year Health Plan set out how the government will address the long-standing challenge that cutting-edge HealthTech is not being used in the NHS, or is only available to patients in some parts of the country.
The new National Healthtech Access Programme (previously called the Rules Based Pathway) is a collaborative approach between NICE, the Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England, MHRA and the Office for Life Sciences. The approach will expand NICE’s Technology Appraisals programme to incorporate health technologies. This means that like medicines, a small selection of high-impact technologies will be reimbursed and made available across the entire health service.
NICE has announced that the first two topics to go through the new programme are capsule sponge tests for detecting oesophageal cancer and AI tools for identifying prostate and breast cancer – technologies that could transform early diagnosis for thousands of patients each year, and drive workforce efficiency in the NHS through releasing capacity.
The new programme forms part of a strategic open innovation approach to HealthTech that is set out in the 10 Year Health Plan to create a far better experience for patients and NHS professionals, unlocking the extraordinary potential of HealthTech advances and the UK’s HealthTech sector.
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Date: 10 February