HealthTech Alliance: Policy Blueprint (December 2022)

Summary

Innovation and technology have played a vital role in our health system, not least during the pandemic. Whilst we have seen a variety of positive changes and reforms, such as the MedTech Funding Mandate and new data plans, the new administration still has a lot to address. Not forgetting the positive lessons we learnt from the pandemic is key – we saw that a more rapid uptake is possible and barriers to adoption can be overcome. Addressing these barriers to adoption is still essential if the UK wants to be the global hub for technology and innovation – adopting technological driven innovative solutions will be more important than ever for the NHS in order to continue improving patient outcomes whilst maintaining economic discipline.

Content

This report examines the adoption challenge in greater detail, setting out a number of policy recommendations that will transform the HealthTech landscape.

The recommendations will centre on:

• Fast-tracking technology adoption, which we saw is possible during the pandemic.
• Creating sustainable and long-term funding models for technologies with proven results, rather than patchy “pots” of funding across the system.
• Improving demand-signalling across the NHS arm-length bodies. Private HealthTech industries are keen to help the public health system, but they need clearer demand-signalling as of what do they need, when and how much, to prevent issues such as supply chain problems during the pandemic.