NICE: backing the healthtech that changes lives

When the right technology reaches the right patient, lives change.

These are the voices of people whose lives have been transformed by NICE-recommended healthtech.

We produce different types of healthtech guidance depending on where a technology is in its product lifecycle: 

Early use (previously early value assessment) – for promising innovations that address NHS needs but where further evidence is needed. Recommendations may support NHS use while further evidence is gathered, or indicate research use only.

Routine use – for clinically and cost-effective healthtech that is recommended for widespread NHS adoption, so it is available to everyone who needs it. This includes technology appraisal and interventional procedures guidance. Our interventional procedures guidance often evaluates healthtech-enabled procedures to confirm they're both safe and effective for NHS patients.

Existing use (previously late-stage assessment) – for established technologies already in widespread use. This guidance helps the NHS decide if the products they are using are value for money.

The government's 10 Year Health Plan sets out an ambitious vision to shift the NHS from analogue to digital. Under this plan, we're expanding our technology appraisal guidance, previously used primarily for medicines.

Through the National Healthtech Access Programme, we'll identify and evaluate healthtech that can significantly improve patient outcomes or ease pressure on NHS services. When we recommend healthtech through this route, it can receive national NHS funding and be rolled out fairly across the country, so it's available to everyone who needs it.

Our initial focus is on a small number of technologies with the potential to rapidly improve NHS services and patients' lives, nationwide. The first 2 technologies to be evaluated in this way have the potential to transform early diagnosis of oesophageal, prostate and breast cancer.