The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has launched a new consultation which could soon see more innovative healthcare technologies adopted by the NHS under its proposals.

The changes aim to transform how medical devices, diagnostics, and digital and AI health technologies are evaluated, as the NHS moves from analogue to digital, hospital to community, and treatment to prevention.

In the biggest shake-up of NICE’s HealthTech programme to date, the plans enable more products to be evaluated and remove the requirement for medical devices to be cost saving for them to be recommended for use in the NHS.

Instead, independent committees will assess all technologies based on cost-effectiveness and so will balance the cost of the technology with the benefits it brings to patients and the service, which may include savings or efficiencies.

The move is part of a series of proposals to set up NICE’s HealthTech programme for the next decade and beyond as the NHS moves from analogue to digital. NICE’s proposed changes are designed to improve the productivity of the NHS with the rollout of new technologies and digital approaches to help more people receive the care they need in the community.

The changes NICE is expected to adopt strive to transform patients’ experience of care by embracing technology.

Mark Chapman, Director of HealthTech at NICE, said: “We’re transforming our HealthTech programme to ensure it meets the needs of the NHS both now and in the future.

“Our transformation aims to deliver clearer, quicker and more targeted guidance that fits NHS priorities. We want to identify and accelerate the adoption of the most effective devices, interventions, digital solutions and diagnostic tools into the NHS, where they can transform patient care and outcomes. We’ve already cut guidance development time without compromising quality. This is the next step.

“Our proposed new approach, including a multi-tech cost-effectiveness approach and revised assessment methods, will create opportunities for innovative solutions that previously might not have reached our independent committees for consideration because they weren’t cost saving.

“We’re committed to ensuring NICE’s world leading position in making the very best clinically and cost-effective HealthTech available to our NHS.”

Key changes include merging three existing programmes into a single HealthTech programme; introducing a lifecycle evaluation approach to consider technologies for early or routine use in the NHS and consider those already in use; and making multi-technology assessments of similar technologies with the same purpose standard practice.

NICE is merging the interventional procedures, medical technologies evaluation, and diagnostics assessment programmes to become one HealthTech programme.

The proposals are set to formalise the way NICE will evaluate technologies for early NHS use, previously described as early value assessments. Evaluation methods will flex to reflect what stage a technology or procedure is at in the lifecycle.

It is expected that multi-technology assessments of products will become the standard, helping the NHS make informed purchasing decisions when multiple products with the same purpose are available. When only one technology is available in the market, a single technology assessment will be carried out.

This is the first update to create a HealthTech manual. Further changes are planned to ensure NICE guidance is relevant and meets the needs of patients and the NHS, according to the organisation.

A consultation has opened on the proposed changes. The deadline for responses and feedback is 6 March 2025.