1 Purpose of this document
NICE's assessment of digitally enabled therapies for adults with anxiety disorders recommends that more evidence is generated while 6 of the technologies are being used in the NHS:
-
Beating the Blues for generalised anxiety symptoms or unspecified anxiety disorder
-
iCT‑PTSD for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
-
iCT‑SAD for social anxiety disorder
-
Space from Anxiety for generalised anxiety symptoms or unspecified anxiety disorder
-
Perspectives for body dysmorphic disorder
These technologies can be used once they have CE or UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) mark approval, Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC) approval and an NHS Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression digitally enabled therapies assessment from NHS England. The other technologies that were assessed can only be used in research and are not covered in this plan.
This plan outlines the evidence gaps and what real-world data needs to be collected for a NICE review of the technologies again in the future. It is not a study protocol but suggests an approach to generating the information needed to address the evidence gaps. For assessing comparative treatment effects, randomised controlled trials are the preferred source of evidence if these are able to address the research gap and can be done well.
The companies are responsible for ensuring that data collection and analysis takes place. Support for evidence generation will be available through a competitive process facilitated by the Office for Life Sciences, pending business case approval. This will be in the form of funding for evidence generation consortia, bringing analytical partners and implementation sites together with companies for evidence generation.
Guidance on commissioning and procurement of the technologies will be provided by NHS England, who are developing a digital health technology policy framework to further outline commissioning pathways.
NICE will withdraw the guidance if the companies do not meet the conditions in section 4 on monitoring.
After the end of the evidence generation period (3 years), the companies should submit the evidence to NICE in a form that can be used for decision making. NICE will review all the evidence and assess whether the technologies can be routinely adopted in the NHS.