12th March 2020

Health Technology Wales and NICE announce strategic collaboration

Health Technology Wales (HTW) and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have formally committed to work together to enhance their independent and authoritative Guidance on non-medicine technologies.

They have signed a Memorandum of Understanding that outlines their collaboration in the strategic planning and delivery of medical technology Guidance in England and Wales.

Both organisations conduct Health Technology Assessments (HTA) to determine the safety, clinical and cost effectiveness of medical device innovations. This process takes into consideration the best available evidence, as well as input from patients, carers and clinicians.

With a shared interest in improving patient access to effective non-medicine technologies and treatments, both organisations produce Guidance to enable evidence-informed decision making by care providers. The agreement of the collaboration will increase co-operation between assessors in England and Wales.

“We’re delighted to formalise our relationship with NICE,” said Professor Peter Groves, Chair of Health Technology Wales and Chair of NICE’s Medical Technologies Advisory Committee. “Our role in promoting the use of medical technologies that offer the most benefit for the people of Wales is shared by NICE. It’s timely that we collaborate to share resources and knowledge so that we can ensure the best possible outcomes from the work of both organisations in improving the health of people in Wales.”

Meindert Boysen, Director of the Centre for Health Technology Evaluation at NICE, said: “NICE welcomes this agreement with Health Technology Wales which aims to improve the way both organisations collaborate and communicate in the important area of medical technologies.”

Health Technology Wales is a national body set up in 2017 to work with partners across health, social care and the technology sectors to deliver a strategic approach to the identification, appraisal and adoption of new health technologies. It’s funded by Welsh Government and hosted within NHS Wales, but independent of both. Their remit covers any health technology that isn’t a medicine, such as medical devices, surgical procedures, psychological therapies or tele-monitoring.

Click here to learn more about Health Technology Wales.

NICE was formed in 1999 and became a Non Departmental Public Body in 2013. It’s partially funded by Wales and provides national advice on the promotion of good health, as well as the prevention and treatment of ill-health. NICE produces a range of Guidance that can relate to non-medicine technologies.

Click here to learn more about NICE.

Health Technology Wales will audit the uptake of Guidance produced by both organisations and monitor how it’s being used by care providers in Wales. Both organisations will receive a range of other benefits as they work together. Health Technology Wales also has a license for using the NICE Medtech Early Technical Assessment Tool and already uses HealthTech Connect, the online notification system for identifying technologies as they move from inception to adoption in the UK’s health and care systems.