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4th June 2019

Health Technology Wales approved Data Accessor for NICE’s new Health Tech Connect resource

Health Technology Wales (HTW) is an approved Data Accessor for the newly launched HealthTech Connect, an online resource provided by NICE.

The secure online resource helps to identify and support new health technologies as they move from inception to adoption in the UK health and care systems.

A range of partner organisations developed HealthTech Connect for health technologies (medical devices, diagnostics and digital health technologies) that:

  • offer measurable benefits to patients (or other health and care service users) compared to the technologies used in current routine practice in the UK, or
  • provide measurable benefits to the UK health and care system compared to the technologies used in current routine practice in the UK.

Companies can register their health technology on HealthTech Connect for free. By signing up, companies can learn what information is needed by decision makers and clarify possible routes to market access. Registering new technologies will also help care systems to better plan for the adoption of new technologies.

Once registered, companies can enter and update information about their technology on www.HealthTechConnect.org.uk. This information will be used to identify whether the technology is suitable for evaluation by a UK health technology assessment programme, such as Health Technology Wales.This will avoid companies having to provide the same or similar information about their technology separately to different technology assessment organisations or programmes.

Meindert Boysen, Director of the Centre for Health technology Evaluation at NICE, said: “HealthTech Connect is a clear and simple point of entry for companies developing health technologies, be it medical devices, diagnostics or digital health technologies, to access support and potential routes to national evaluation programmes.

“Ultimately the aim of HealthTech Connect is to help get promising new health technologies to the people who will benefit from them, faster. We expect it to contribute to reducing the complexity, and often duplication, involved in getting medical devices, diagnostics and digital health technologies adopted in the UK.”

Since the initial “soft” launch of the system in February, over 100 companies have registered to use HealthTech Connect, 13 technologies have been submitted, and one technology has already been selected by NICE for a Medtech Innovation Briefing

Sarah Field, Sales Manager UK & Ireland for Gynesonics, said: “The HealthTech Connect portal was a great way to interface the interaction between our organisation and NICE. This enabled a swift pathway for our new technology (the Sonata treatmentii) to be evaluated. I thoroughly recommend other commercial organisations to use this route. The registration process was quick and simple. This is a really helpful initiative.”

Click here for more information about HealthTech Connect.

Health Technology Wales is a national body working to improve the quality of care in Wales through the identification, appraisal and adoption of non-medicine technologies. Visit www.healthtechnology.walesfor more information.