Highlights

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a new combined methods and processes manual and a topic selection manual for its health technology evaluation programmes. The changes outlined in the manuals came into effect from 1 February 2022 for new evaluations and will give patients earlier access to innovative new treatments. NICE has set out the…

A new Business Council has been created by the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, following the two-year anniversary of Brexit. This group is a revamped cohort, co-chaired by the Chancellor, that will work “to drive a high productivity, high growth economy over the next 12 months and level up local economies around the country”. The new Council will support the UK’s…

A new policy paper has been published by the UK Government on the ‘Benefits of Brexit: How the UK is taking advantage of leaving the EU’. This is in timing with the two-year anniversary of the UK’s departure from the trading bloc on 31 January 2020. Regarding healthcare and life sciences, there are various mentions of the beneficial changes and…

The amending regulation which extends the transitional provisions of the IVD Regulation has become EU law and comes into force from today. This is immediately applicable in all member states, and will allow for further preparation time for companies depending on device classification. Regulation (EU) 2022/112 extends the IVDR transitional periods, allowing most devices with their EC Declaration of Conformity…

Phillips-Medisize is collaborating with healthcare start-up SOTECH Health to accelerate the development of a breath-sensor system that detects COVID-19 in less than 30 seconds. This a reusable device that leverages research at the University of Texas into cloud-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Phillips-Medisize’s “product design, rapid prototyping, and end-to-end manufacturing expertise”. To screen for COVID-19, a person breathes into the…

A British digital health platform and personal health provider has created what it calls the world’s first smartphone-based test for cardiovascular disease. The company is named ‘PocDoc’, and the team claim to be on track to launch in the Spring. The technology will initially be available to healthcare distributors and businesses such as private healthcare providers, pharmacies, care workers and…

Pressure leads GPs to increase antibiotic prescribing The pressure GPs are working under has been linked to increasing broad-spectrum antibiotic prescribing in England by health economists at The University of Manchester and University of Southern Denmark The association, say the team, means that pressure on GPs could contribute to antimicrobial resistance https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/pressure-leads-gps-to-increase-antibiotic-prescribing/ NHS pilots genetic testing to predict risk of…

A new NHS pilot study into genetic testing for common diseases has been launched. The HEART study (Healthcare Evaluation of Absolute Risk Testing) is a world-first and will be examining the potential prevention of common diseases through the use of genetic assessment techniques. More specifically, it will focus primarily on using genetic information “to augment cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk assessment…

Our Future Health, which aims to eventually recruit up to five million adults to the programme, has launched this week. The programme, chaired by Professor Sir John Bell, aims to utilise volunteers to create a detailed, diverse health picture of the UK population. It is hoped that this will help to develop innovative new ways to diagnose, detect and treat…

University of Sussex researchers have identified distinctive biomarkers within patient blood samples which could indicate Glioblastoma. As the biomarkers were identified in extracellular vesicles, diagnosis through liquid biopsy could prove to be a viable option. This is important as a biopsy would be a faster and less invasive alternative to current diagnostic methods. Glioblastoma is the most common high grade…