Health authorities introduce public discussion on revised Health Technology Programme Handbook by NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence)
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has announced an update to its HealthTech programme, aiming to consolidate and modernize the evaluation of health technologies and interventional procedures within the National Health Service (NHS) in England.
According to Chris Whitehouse of Whitehouse Communications, the update, as detailed in the July 2025 HealthTech program manual, seeks to streamline the previous Medical Technologies Evaluation, Diagnostics Assessment, and Interventional Procedures programmes into a single framework. This transformation is expected to produce more robust, transparent, and timely guidance for NHS patients.
Key purposes and features of the updated programme include providing clear, consistent methods and processes for evaluating HealthTech products and interventional procedures. The goal is to ensure that NHS patients benefit from effective, safe, and efficient technologies, such as quicker diagnosis, faster recovery, and reduced risk.
The programme also supports early and rapid assessment of promising health technologies through approaches like the Early Value Assessment (EVA), enabling conditional recommendations that facilitate earlier patient access while further evidence is gathered.
Two types of guidance will be offered: HealthTech guidance and Interventional Procedures guidance, covering innovations from digital tools to new medical procedures, helping to improve NHS patient pathways and system efficiency.
Stakeholders will be engaged openly and transparently throughout the evaluation process to ensure robust evidence generation and applicability across clinical and commissioning contexts.
The updated manual aligns and updates previous NICE guidance manuals to reflect the new program structure and evaluation strategies, facilitating coherence and ease of use for organizations contributing to technology assessments.
Recent assessments under the programme include digital referral assistants for mental health therapy pathways and novel procedures like pulsed-field ablation for atrial fibrillation, demonstrating NICE’s role in rapidly incorporating new, evidence-backed innovations into NHS care.
The consultation is seeking external stakeholder feedback on the proposed updates to NICE's HealthTech program manual. The consultation will run for 5 weeks, ending on 4 September 2025. This provides an opportunity for industry to shape the future direction of the program and ensure their voices are heard.
The revision aims to replace the LSA interim process and methods statement. The move follows industry criticism of NICE’s handling of recent LSA pilots regarding stakeholder engagement, patient, and clinician involvement.
The NHS 10 Year Plan includes a commitment to early adoption and roll-out of MedTech. The update includes methods for developing HealthTech guidance, including the incorporation of formal processes for assessing technologies already in use within the NHS.
For more insights on MedTech in the UK and EU, check out the article titled "MedTech in the UK and EU: What to Expect in 2025" in "Medical Device Manufacturing Insights".
The consultation can be found at the provided link. The UK agency has already approved cutting-edge robotic surgery systems, underscoring its commitment to embracing innovative healthcare solutions.
The update to NICE's HealthTech program is expected to improve health-and-wellness by providing timely guidance to patients, ensuring they benefit from effective, safe, and efficient technologies in the NHS. The program supports early assessment of promising medical-conditions innovations through approaches like the Early Value Assessment (EVA), and will offer both HealthTech and Interventional Procedures guidance to cover a wide range of digital tools and new medical procedures. With the consultation seeking industry feedback, politics and policy-and-legislation play a crucial role in shaping the future direction of the program, as outlined in the July 2025 HealthTech program manual.
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