The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is linking with user experience agency Sigma to develop a new system to improve the identification of medical technologies for use in the NHS.
It is hoped that the availability of such a system will ultimately improve patient care, supporting innovation and bringing economic benefits to the wider health system.
The partnership will also tap into a wide range of stakeholders to understand how the process of identifying and prioritising new and emerging medical technologies, diagnostics and digital heath tools can be improved.
Sigma will has been tasked with developing a prototype of the online platform to help identify the best med tech on offer, which will be tested with intended users and stakeholders, before proceeding to a design and build stage.
“The aim of the new system is to bring together existing intelligence on important new technologies, prevent duplication and inconsistency and support decision making around new tech, ensuring that money invested by both the NHS and manufacturers are in products that meet NHS priorities,” said Sigma’s managing director Hilary Stephenson.
“It is therefore crucial that the proposed system meets stakeholder requirements and is in tune with their needs, which is why we have been brought in to provide comprehensive user insight to inform the technical specifications and ensure the design of the platform is strongly user driven."
