About this briefing

About this briefing

Medtech innovation briefings summarise the published evidence and information available for individual medical technologies. The briefings provide information to aid local decision‑making by clinicians, managers and procurement professionals.

Medtech innovation briefings aim to present information and critically review the strengths and weaknesses of the relevant evidence, but contain no recommendations and are not formal NICE guidance.

Development of this briefing

This briefing was developed for NICE by Birmingham and Brunel Consortium. The interim process & methods statement sets out the process NICE uses to select topics, and how the briefings are developed, quality‑assured and approved for publication.

Project team

Birmingham and Brunel Consortium

Medical Technologies Evaluation Programme, NICE

Authors

  • Rui Duarte, Research Fellow, Birmingham and Brunel Consortium, University of Birmingham

  • Zulian Liu, Research Fellow, Birmingham and Brunel Consortium, University of Birmingham

Peer reviewers and contributors

  • Catherine Meads, Deputy Director, Birmingham and Brunel Consortium, Brunel University

Specialist commentators

The following specialist commentators provided comments on a draft of this briefing:

  • Stella Hornby, Associate Specialist in Ophthalmology, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

  • Mark Webb, GP, Bernays and Whitehouse Medical Partnership, Solihull, West Midlands.

  • Manoj Parulekar, Consultant Ophthalmic Surgeon, Birmingham Children's Hospital.

Declarations of interest

  • Stella Hornby is a partner in Primary Care Ophthalmology, which provides education to GPs, and has received a travel grant from Allergan and honoraria from Allergan and Alcon.

No relevant interests were declared by the additional specialist commentators.

Copyright

© National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, 2015. All rights reserved. NICE copyright material can be downloaded for private research and study, and may be reproduced for educational and not‑for‑profit purposes. No reproduction by or for commercial organisations, or for commercial purposes, is allowed without the written permission of NICE.

ISBN: 978‑1‑4731‑1583‑5