Government committed to digital health, ease of market access

The UK government is committed to investing in digital technology in healthcare and streamlining market access for innovators, Lord Markham told the Health Tech Summit in a speech as part of London Tech Week.

Noting that the UK will become the third country in the world after the US and China to have a $1 trillion tech sector in 2022, Lord Markham said he was determined to “Remove barriers and ensuring that our healthcare remains on the front lines of innovation.

He said: “Digital and technology is a key way we will address some of the challenges facing the NHS. We know that digitally mature trusts operate with around 10% better efficiency than their less digitally mature peers Are.

a range of support for innovation

Lord Markham said the government is increasing support for digital therapeutics. In March the chancellor included £225 million of Ringfence funding in the budget for the Digital Mental Health and Musculoskeletal, known as MSK, initiative.

He added: “We are accelerating the deployment and adoption of clinical grade technologies that are evidence-based, and used to prevent, manage or cure a medical disorder or disease.

“The first mental health and MSK products will be available through the NHS app later this year, allowing 24/7 access to tailored lifestyle factors without the need for a doctor referral.”

Lord Markham said the government is also planning to increase the use of digital tools within existing NHS mental health talking therapy services.

There are also several existing programs supporting health technology innovators. By 2022/23, the Small Business Research Initiative Healthcare Awards program has made a cumulative investment of over £129 million and funded a total of 324 projects.

The Digital Health Partnership Award has identified 43 NHS projects as novel, with the potential to increase momentum. He said the technologies are focused on supporting people at home and that within two years more than 140,000 patients have been supported.

Innovate UK provides funding to UK-based businesses or research organizations to support and encourage innovation in the UK economy, with grants of between £25,000 and £10 million and innovation loans of between £100,000 and £1 million. offers.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research, which works with industry at all stages of the clinical development pipeline, supports promising innovations to generate the evidence needed to get them to market.

Lord Markham said: “We have provided £123 million to test and evaluate 86 AI technologies In areas such as urgent stroke care, at-home testing for the disease, and cancer screening. These technologies are being deployed and scaled up across 99 hospitals and 300 primary care networks in the UK.

“We are working on co-ordinating these investment programs and evidenced the impact at scale across the NHS.”

leveling and productivity

A key priority for government technology funding is to support health and care systems to ‘level-up’ their digital maturity and ensure they have a core level of infrastructure, digitization and skills by March 2025 Are.

To support systems uptake, governments will be able to baseline their current level of digital maturity against existing What Good Looks Like guidance to improve decision making, identify collaboration opportunities and enhance patient experience Will conduct an annual Digital Maturity Assessment to help

Lord Markham also highlighted the new hospital programme, which he said would ensure the NHS and its staff have the facilities they need for the future.

He said: “Digital design is at the heart of our approach to standardization in the new hospital programme.

“We aim for this to bring greater productivity gains than digital alone and could lead to 20% productivity gains, which will encourage the Treasury to help fund even more new hospitals.”

Further, he said that the government had fulfilled more than half of its promises a year ago data saves lives The strategy paper has been distributed, which includes ensuring that all 42 integrated care systems have a shared care record.

building a regulatory framework

NHS England is working closely with NICE, the MHRA and other partners to create a clear, efficient and user-centred route, including a clear policy framework and support market pathway, for scaling up digital health technologies in the NHS.

The proposed commercial route is being co-designed with industry considerations, Lord Markham said, and will “provide clarity for innovators on how they proof their products and how they will be reimbursed.”

He said: “This will help to strengthen procurement points, streamline market access for industry and also provide an opportunity to take advantage of the purchasing power of the NHS.

“A conditional recommendation pathway is being created to support innovators to gather evidence while they go through the evaluation process.”

As part of this process, the Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC), a critical assurance process, will ensure That all new technologies deployed within the NHS meet baseline standards for clinical safety, data security, cyber security, interoperability and accessibility and usability.

He said: “Our Strategy Recommendations of the Digital and Technology Procurement Framework Simplify the procurement process for both buyers and sellers to navigate, remove duplication and reduce costs.

“We have introduced a number of dynamic procurement systems nationally to enable buyers and sellers in the procurement and supply of digital solutions for the NHS.”

Lord Markham said the final aspect of ensuring the transformative impact of AI and digital is to develop them safely, ethically and in line with best practice in evidence-based medicine.

This is the basis of the AI ​​and Digital Exchange Service, which was fully launched on Monday, brings together guidance on regulations applicable to digital and AI in one place to save time for developers bringing products to market.

Lord Markham said: “We must continue to make the UK the place for industry to develop healthcare innovations, with access to the best data in the world to do this.

“We are working hard on many fronts to streamline our route to market, listening to industry concerns and taking practical steps to ensure market access.”