The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has opened a public consultation inviting feedback from external stakeholders on planned revisions to its HealthTech programme manual.
These revisions outline the methodologies that the HealthTech programme will follow when producing guidance. A major change is the introduction of formalised procedures for reviewing technologies already in use within the NHS, referred to as late-stage assessments (LSA). This approach is intended to replace the current interim LSA process and methods statement.
The consultation will be open for five weeks, closing on 4 September 2025. It comes at a pivotal moment for NICE, which has recently faced industry criticism over its LSA pilot projects. Concerns were raised that NICE had not sufficiently engaged with stakeholders, patients, or clinicians during those pilots. This new consultation offers industry an opportunity to influence the programme’s future direction and ensure their perspectives are considered.
The consultation is available here.
