NICE has launched a new consultation, the third in recent times, on proposals on changes to the processes which NICE uses to develop its guidance on medicines, medical devices, diagnostics and digital health technologies. The public consultation will be open for submissions until 15^th April 2021 and forms part of the largest ever review undertaken by NICE, looking at the potential changes to methods and processes the organisation carries out to produce essential guidance.

Opportunities to be explored in the consultation cover the alignment of its current guidance programme, new process improvements and ways of working and improving the commercial and managed access processes. In addition, NICE has outlined a case for improvement in its commercial and managed access processes, as well as refining its criteria for selecting topics for evaluation through its Highly Specialised Technologies programme.

To continue to support the needs and aspirations of all parts of the healthcare and life sciences ecosystem, NICE must ensure that its processes of health technology evaluation maintain and improve upon key objectives regarding quality, dependability, speed, flexibility and cost”, said Meindert Boysen, Deputy Chief Executive and Director of the Centre for Health Technology Assessment at NICE.

If you are considering a response to the consultation please do consider sending a copy of your comments to Helen, to ensure the industry response can be coordinated.