New programme to speed up use of innovative and cost effective medical technologies in the NHS

Medical technologies that until now have been slow to be introduced to the NHS will get a boost with the launch of a new NICE programme to assess innovative and cost effective devices and diagnostics, and speed their uptake by hospitals.

These devices and diagnostics are pieces of medical equipment such as drug delivery systems, body scanners and implants for surgery that allow doctors to diagnose and treat illnesses, often more quickly, more easily and less painfully than before. The Evaluation Pathway Programme for Medical Technologies will help new medical technologies, or new versions of existing ones, to be used sooner and more consistently in the NHS.

Professor Bruce Campbell is the chair of NICE's new Medical Technologies Advisory Committee, which will oversee the process. He said “The problem with devices and diagnostics is that they haven't in the past been researched as well as medicines. That's one of the reasons they've been slow to be introduced, and often in a patchy way, into the health service. This new committee will speed up the way that promising new technologies start to be used in the NHS. We will assess those devices and diagnostic technologies which claim to have particular advantages and make sure that they are evaluated in the best possible way. This could mean NICE producing guidance about their use, and it may also mean helping them to be investigated more thoroughly through research.”

As a consultant vascular surgeon and chair of NICE's Interventional Procedures Advisory Committee since 2002, Professor Campbell has extensive experience of NICE's evaluation processes and guidance production. The committee contains people with a range of clinical skills from different disciplines, lay people, medical scientists, health economists, and representatives from the healthcare industry.

The Medical Technologies Advisory Committee's creation has come about through a close partnership betweenNICE, the medical technologies industry, the Department of Health and the NHS's Centre for Evidence-based Purchasing.

Mike Wallace, from the Association of British Healthcare Industries said “This is an exciting development for everyone involved in the medical technologies industry. Having a clear pathway to identify and evaluate promising innovative medical technologies is good for patients, the NHS and manufacturers. I encourage the industry to contribute to the Evaluation Pathway Programme for Medical Technologies when the process gets underway next year.”

The committee has been set up in response to Lord Darzi's report ‘High quality care for all' which stressed the need to simplify the pathway by which medical technologies go from development into use.

The first meeting of the new Medical Technologies Advisory Committee takes place at the end of November 2009. The committee hope to have information on how it will work available for consultation in late spring 2010, with the first guidance published that autumn.

Issued: 17 November 2009