Chris Whitehouse, a political consultant and expert on medical technology policy and regulation at Whitehouse Communications, and advisor to MedTech suppliers, reports on a new consultation launched by NICE.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has launched a consultation seeking external stakeholder feedback on proposed updates to its HealthTech programme manual.
The update sets out the methods to be used by the NICE HealthTech programme when developing HealthTech guidance. A key feature of the revision is the incorporation of formal processes for assessing technologies already in use within the NHS, known as late-stage assessments (LSA), with a view to replacing the LSA interim process and methods statement.
The consultation will run for 5 weeks until 4th September 2025. The move comes at a critical time for NICE, which has faced scrutiny from industry over recent LSA pilots. Industry felt that, throughout the LSAs, NICE did not adequately engage with stakeholders, patients or clinicians. The consultation provides an important opportunity for industry to shape the future direction of the programme and ensure that their voices are heard.
The consultation can be found here.
The Author used AI in preparing this article, comments upon or questions about which can be addressed to chris.whitehouse@whitehousecomms.com.
