NHS England has commissioned The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to take over the work of the NHS Technology Adoption Centre (NTAC), giving it a greater role in helping the NHS to adopt innovative technologies, such as surgical implants and diagnostic and monitoring devices.
NTAC was established in 2007 to enable organisations to better understand and overcome barriers that prevent them from adopting new technologies. A key part of its work was to engage directly with industry and the NHS and to support products evaluated by NICE’s Medical Technologies guidance programme. Following approval by the Department of Health, the team at the centre has joined NICE to become the Health Technologies Adoption Programme (HTAP). Professor Gillian Leng, deputy chief executive of NICE said: “We are pleased to take on this new responsibility. By establishing our Health Technologies Adoption Programme, we hope there will be a more seamless integration of NICE guidance and practical support and information at a local NHS level.” A key function of NICE’s new programme will be to develop ‘adoption guides’ that detail how NHS organisations can sustainably introduce specific technologies recommended by NICE into routine clinical use; for example, by outlining staff training that may be required or through business case development. NICE’s programme will also support suppliers in the medical technologies and diagnostics industry to navigate the complexities of the NHS. It will do this by working with NICE’s already-established scientific advice programme to provide consultancy and guidance to manufacturers whose devices and technologies have already demonstrated clear benefits to patients and have real potential to improve NHS efficiency. Sally Chisholm, former chief executive of NTAC and now programme director of NICE’s Health Technologies Adoption Programme said: “The NHS often lags behind other countries in terms of implementation. Hospitals often try and fail to introduce new technologies – and it is sometimes very difficult to understand the reasons. Understanding and being able to negotiate through the technology adoption process is vital, and it is exactly this support that we will be providing doctors and managers in the NHS.”
