Medical Technology Strategy: Key takeaways for the assistive technology sector
On 3 February 2023, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) published its first-ever medical technology strategy.
Entitled ‘Medical Technology Strategy’, the medical technology (medtech) strategy details the steps that need to be taken to ensure patients can access safe, effective, and innovative technology through the NHS, which can help diagnose, treat, and deliver care more quickly, freeing up clinician time.
According to the strategy, the NHS spends £10 billion a year on medtech, including assistive technologies like wheelchairs.
The strategy aims to deliver value for money, using the latest data on the effectiveness of new technology to ensure prices are reasonable for the health system. It also strives to build resilient supply chains and ensure the UK is prepared for future pandemics.
Details about what the Medical Technology Strategy would contain were shared with healthcare and assistive technology professionals and suppliers at the BHTA Integration and Sustainability Conference 2022. At the conference, David Lawson MCIPS, Director of Medical Technology at DHSC, explained that the strategy is centred around the right product, at the right price, in the right place.
He said: “I believe each of those themes can sometimes compete with each other. The purpose of the strategy is to try to get a fair balance between those different elements.”
Since the publication of the medtech strategy, the British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA) has called on DHSC to work more closely with the wider industry to deliver its strategy aims.
Below, AT Today has highlighted some of the key points from the 48-page Medical Technology Strategy that the assistive technology sector should be aware of.
The difference between medical devices and assistive technologies
According to the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), assistive technology is defined as:
“The phrase ‘assistive technology’ is often used to describe products or systems that support and assist individuals with disabilities, restricted mobility or other impairments to perform functions that might otherwise be difficult or impossible.”
Examples of assistive technologies include crutches, rollators, prosthetics, wheelchairs, grab rails, hoists, hearing aids, and pressure-relieving cushions.
A medical device is defined as:
“Any instrument, apparatus, appliance, software, material or other article, whether used alone or in combination, together with any accessories, including the software intended by its manufacturer to be used specifically for diagnosis or therapeutic purposes or both and necessary for its proper application, which:
“a) is intended by its manufacturer to be used for human beings for the purpose of:
- diagnosis, prevention, monitoring, treatment or alleviation of disease
- diagnosis, monitoring, treatment, alleviation of or compensation for an injury or handicap
- investigation, replacement or modification of the anatomy or of a physiological process,
- or control of conception, and
“b) does not achieve its principal intended action in or on the human body by pharmacological, immunological or metabolic means, even if it is assisted in its function by such means.”
Assistive technologies can be medical devices. However, importantly, not all assistive technologies are medical devices. It depends on the claims made by the manufacturer. The determining factor will be whether there is a direct link between the corrective function of the equipment and the individual concerned, MHRA states.
Items will only be considered a medical device if the manufacturer has stated that it has a medical purpose and if the product’s primary mode of action is physical or mechanical. All medical devices need to be appropriately conformity marked.
Some assistive technologies are considered an aid to daily living as opposed to a medical device. Aids to daily living help people carry out day-to-day activities. Although they may be used by those with disabilities or other impairments, in healthcare environments, or by healthcare professionals, many of these products may be used by anyone and will not have a specific medical purpose or direct link to the individuals concerned.
Right product, right price, right place
One of the key focuses of the Medical Technology Strategy is ensuring a balance between the right product at the right price in the right place. It says that rather than these elements competing with one another, which is often the case now, it strives to reach an optimal point where all three elements are weighted appropriately so the medtech sector best supports the UK health and care system in delivering improved health outcomes for patients.
Right product
The strategy reads: “We will ensure products are clinically safe and effective for all by developing best-in-class regulations and upholding safety standards. We will encourage innovative and sustainable product development to better meet patient needs, diagnosis, and outcomes.”
DHSC wants to ensure healthcare professionals and patients can make informed decisions on medtech products with clarity and confidence. The departments wants to support innovative medtech products that address clinical priorities and increase sustainability.
For health and social care professionals that work with medical devices, this should mean a move away from devices in the NHS that are simply the cheapest option and an increase in products that genuinely meet patients’ wants and needs.
Right price
“We will create an environment that supports the understanding and delivery of value for money and affordability across the whole patient pathway, using high quality data to ensure that prices are reasonable for the health system and sustainable for suppliers,” the Medical Technology Strategy states.
The strategy makes clear that the value of medtech products should not be considered in isolation but across the whole patient pathway. Affordability, long-term value, and patient outcomes must form part of this assessment, as well as an acknowledgement that ‘lowest price’ does not always translate to best value, according to DHSC.
Again, this focus on product value rather than the lowest price will come as welcome news to healthcare professionals, as there is a shift towards devices that improve patient outcomes in the long-term.
Right place
The document notes: “We will ensure the UK is positioned internationally and domestically to increase access, diversity, and resilience in the supply market, to get technology to the patients and healthcare professionals who need them.”
Confidence in the availability of medtech products at the time they are needed is critical to the functioning of the health and care system, DHSC stresses. Access to the right products, delivery of them via a responsive and resilient supply chain, and supporting their adoption into the UK health and care system ensures everyone has access to medical technology as and when they need it.
Four priority areas
To achieve DHSC’s overall vision of the right product at the right price in the right place, the strategy identifies four priority areas to help deliver this goal:
- Resilience and continuity of supply: The strategy wants to strengthen the medtech supply chain in the UK, as it is currently reliant on multiple nations, making the supply chain vulnerable to disruption. It means that when there are system shocks, it can be difficult to get crucial equipment quickly, leading to shortages. Strengthening the supply chain will mitigate existing risks, the strategy says.
- Innovative and dynamic markets: Currently, it is not always clear what medtech the health and social care system wants and needs. This can be further complicated by high levels of unwarranted variation in product use across the NHS and barriers to switching between products. There are many initiatives and pathways designed to address specific challenges, in particular new and transformative product innovations. The area would benefit from additional coherence and co-ordination for new and existing products in the system to help ensure the best products get to patients faster, according to the strategy.
- Enabling infrastructure: DHSC wants to improve current infrastructure to deliver better patient outcomes and facilitate well-informed sector decisions. It hopes to do this by improving data and metrics to analyse emerging trends and through facilitating better engagement across government, industry, and the wider health and care system.
- Specific market focuses: The medtech sector is complex and diverse, the strategy notes, with many issues and challenges being specific to particular types of technology, clinical specialties, patient populations, and place of use. DHSC wants to ensure it properly understands and targets these specific challenges while proactively working towards an overall vision.
Aligning with wider NHS goals
Importantly, the Medical Technology Strategy was developed to align with wider NHS priorities. These include clearing backlogs; using fewer resources; and delivering better outcomes through informing effective healthcare purchasing, championing sustainability, embracing innovative technology, and improving health data.
There has been a raft of headlines over the past few months about various NHS initiatives that are designed to reduce backlogs, free up hospital beds, and ease pressure off busy healthcare professionals.
For instance, in early January 2023, DHSC unveiled £200 million for local areas to buy thousands of extra beds in care homes and other settings to help discharge more patients who are fit to leave hospital and free up hospital beds for those who need them.
In a similar initiative to free up hospital beds in Wales, £5 million has been made available to increase the number of allied health professionals (AHPs) and increase access to community-based care to help people remain active and independent.
Investing in innovative medtech is an important step in supporting the NHS to be more resilient and effective and ensuring that patients get the health and care they need, the strategy argues.