NICE's new META tool module to be evaluated at the Med-Tech Innovation Expo
Jeanette Kusel, director for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) scientific advice discusses the launch of a new module of the Medtech Early Technical Assessment (META) tool and the changing face of the digital health technology landscape in the UK.
All around us a new generation of technologies are changing our lives, from the everyday use of satnavs and smartphones through to the profound understanding in the ability of genomics to help us develop personalised medicines for individual patients.
The proliferation of digital health technologies, including mobile health apps and wearable sensors, holds great promise for improving the health of the population. As with other new health technologies, demonstrating evidence of their benefits and costs is a fundamental requirement of the health system and a potentially limiting first step to adoption into clinical practice.
The UK has the chance to lead the world on healthtech. We already have some of the world’s foremost healthtech companies bringing new innovations and advancing the international reputation of our excellent science and research base. In the NHS, we have the world’s largest health institution and in NICE we have one of the world’s most respected health technology assessment bodies. Working collaboratively, we have the opportunity to build an ecosystem that continually creates, develops and adopts the best healthtech.
NICE evidence standards framework to support digital health technology uptake
As digital health innovations have developed at an increasing pace, it has been a challenge to identify which are clinically effective and offer economic value for patients and the healthcare system.
To help address this issue, NICE has recently published a new evidence standards framework for digital health technologies. The project was led by NHS England and the NICE framework was developed in partnership with other healthcare organisations, including MedCity and DigitalHealth London, with input from commissioners, industry and academia. These evidence standards are leading the way in providing both developers and commissioners with an understanding of what good levels of evidence look like for digital health technologies according to the type of technology and the level of risk to patients and to the health budget impact. The standards cover both the clinical and economic impact of the new technology and outline what evidence is needed to develop a case for their adoption and use by the health and care system.
The NICE scientific advice META tool
In 2017, NICE’s scientific advice service launched an online tool to help developers of medical devices, diagnostics and digital health technologies understand and generate the evidence needed to show their products are clinically and cost effective. The META tool has been developed in partnership with Greater Manchester Academic Health Science Network. The tool aims to help companies identify what evidence they have and what gaps need to be filled to satisfy payer requirements. This should help companies prepare for a dialogue with health technology assessment organisations and payers to potentially speed up time to market.
It is an affordable service aimed at, but not limited to, small and medium sized companies.
The META tool can be licensed for use by facilitating organisations working with medtech companies. This broad accessibility will allow NICE to maximise the META tool’s potential, to support the medtech industry, and make it available to companies not just in the UK but also internationally.
Adaptation of the META tool to further meet the needs of the UK digital health technology sector
The META tool offers a tested platform for delivering tangible value to those developing novel and innovative health technologies. A new module of the META tool incorporating the digital evidence standards framework will be available to help to align the tool with the fast-evolving digital health technology landscape by adapting to meet the needs of companies developing exciting new digital products.
NICE will be talking about the new launch on the introducing stage at 1pm during the Med-Tech Innovation Expo.