Last week, BIVDA attended a webinar on the NHSE and NICE proposals for a rules-based, integrated MedTech pathway.
It was explained that a key reason for the pathway is to support the aims of the Innovation Ecosystem programme, the MedTech Strategy and other relevant initiatives.
The main objectives this process is aiming to achieve are:
- Improved outcomes for patients
- Better value for money for taxpayers and the NHS
- Greater clarity for industry, specifically around the end-to-end pathway for NICE assessment; NHS routine commissioning and adoption and finally, clearer signalling on NHS priorities.
NICE and NHS England aim to set out ‘rules’ and principles they will use in partnership to evaluate, commission, and fund medical technologies. The two key foundations of this rules-based, integrated MedTech pathway are assessment and evaluation together with supporting access to adoption. The NHS will support the routine commissioning of MedTech recommended as clinically and cost-effective by NICE.
The proposed Integrated MedTech Pathway also seeks to address current challenges through streamlined commercial negotiation, commissioning decision making, and procurement – maximising the value of MedTech products to the NHS and providing greater certainty to industry.
