UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to Produce Medtech Innovation Briefings

In a major step towards improved coordination between clinicians and suppliers of medical devices, the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is to start developing Medtech Innovation Briefings. The briefings comprise a new product to support healthcare staff considering using new medical devices and other medical technologies.

NICE is one of the most important references used by healthcare practitioners in the UK when deciding upon certain treatment pathways.

The briefings will be produced by the Medical Technologies Evaluation Programme at NICE, which already produces guidance on innovative medical devices and diagnostics. The new Medtech Innovation Briefings will provide a description of the medical technology and how it’s used, including its potential role in the treatment pathway.  The costs of using the technology and a review of relevant published evidence will also be covered. By making this information available, NICE hopes to help avoid the need for NHS organisations to produce similar information for local use.

Professor Carole Longson, Director of the NICE Health Technology Evaluation Centre, said: “We’re delighted to be undertaking this new stream of work producing Medtech Innovation Briefings.  We hope that they’ll help clinicians, health managers and procurement professionals with their local decision-making, by providing objective information on device and diagnostic technologies.  These briefings are not NICE guidance – they won’t contain recommendations, nor will they say whether or not a technology should be used.  That decision will be made by local health professionals. We plan to publish the first briefings in early 2014, and hope that they’ll become a useful addition to medtech products that we currently provide.”

More information on the Medtech Innovation Briefings will be available at http://www.nice.org.uk/mib.