The DIAG was a key outcome from the Minister of State for Health’s Diagnostics Industry Roundtable held earlier this year, which focused on the collaboration with industry that is needed to achieve our diagnostics transformation ambitions. The group is expected to provide a vehicle for early engagement, giving industry sight of the evolution of the diagnostic transformation programme and the NHS genomic medicine service so that it can shape effective innovations.
It is a forum for solution-focused dialogue that addresses any challenges affecting diagnostic programme delivery, and the adoption and deployment of evidence based or novel innovative technologies with proven outcomes and will agree priority areas of focus that are specific and can drive diagnostic transformation, directing delivery of these to the appropriate forum and ensuring a two-way exchange with the Accelerated Access Collaborative Board (AAC).
Industry, NHSEI, AAC, and DHSC will work together to drive innovation, providing a forward view of next generation diagnostics in the discovery and development stage and considering the route for market signalling and support from the NHS and other health organisations.
BIVDA represents IVD companies (along with other sector specific associations such as Axrem for Imaging, and ABHI for Medical Devices) in all the programmes ongoing to achieve the Life Sciences Vision, and this group is intended to bring all the workstreams together and keep each informed.
As an attendee already working in each of the areas on behalf of members with a reasonable level of awareness, it was really useful to see how everything does link up across strategy and policy and it is promising to see how the operational and implementation of everything is expected to link.
Following the meeting, BIVDA provided feedback and discussion topics to Tim Ferris’s team on some of the issues discussed.
We indicated that BIVDA represents over 220 IVD suppliers and consideration around the delivery of the different sectors differs in some areas, whilst product/workstream meetings might be useful and we would support this, it runs the risk of fragmenting the purpose of bringing everyone together.
There was significant discussion about how IVDs can help clear the backlog and how point of care/ near patient testing was critical to the overall vision and delivery of the outcomes, so ensuring full engagement at all levels of industry through BIVDA is important to not just engage with the usual players. We also highlighted that SMEs are important, and the call didn’t have enough as these are the providers of the technologies referred to throughout.
BIVDA will be working with the transformation team to understand the best way to engage with SME’s in a more meaningful way since it’s difficult for SMEs to find resource with everything that they are doing and they cannot commit to big/ lengthy meetings. Hopefully direct engagement through BIVDA channels may be a solution to reach more companies in an efficient way.
And finally, it was agreed that agenda setting would be beneficial from industry to bring issues to the forefront, and we indicated our agreement to being part of that process.
