An evaluation programme for medical technologies by NICE
December 2009
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence is ready with the launch of a new programme specifically tailored to assess medical technologies for use on the National Health Service.
The evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of products such as medical devices and diagnostic tests to help ensure their faster uptake in the health service was done by Evaluation Pathway Programme for Medical Technologies. This will help in taking forward the vision laid out by Sir Ara Darzi’s in High Quality Care for All of simplifying the process to help patients and the NHS “benefit more quickly and consistently from innovative medical technologies,” NICE chief executive Andrew Dillon explained.
The newly-formed Medical Technologies Advisory Committee will cherry-pick Innovative medical technologies which will be lead by consultant vascular surgeon Professor Bruce Campbell, who has garnered extensive experience of NICE’s evaluation processes and guidance production from his previous roles at the cost watchdog, the Institute said.
MTAC will then direct each technology through the appropriate programme following the selection, which “may mean NICE evaluating them to produce guidance about their use, and it may also mean helping them to be investigated more thoroughly in research”, Prof Campbell said.
The medical technologies industry has developed a new pathway for medical technologies, the Department of Health and the Centre for Evidence-based Purchasing, and marks “a significant development in the relationship between industry and NICE, which can only benefit the NHS”, according to Mark Samuels, British In-Vitro Diagnostics Association.
Michelle Williams from Artemis Solutions Group who specialise in recruiting for Medical and Pharmaceutical industry comments “The Programme will make it easier for the NHS to understand which new medical technologies, including devices and diagnostics, potentially offer significant benefits to patients.”
MTAC has scheduled its inaugural meeting to take place on Friday. Draft methods and process guides are to be published in spring 2010 and the first guidance in the autumn, the Institute said.
