NHSX has announced a simpler, faster process for the assessment of digital health technologies which will allow for faster and smoother uptake of these digital tools for use by patients. NHSX unveiled the new system which will be utilised for NHS and social care services, it is titled the Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC). DTAC can be completed in days and will provide the public and NHS staff with confidence in the evaluation and safety checks of digital health tools such as health apps and telemedicine products.

All parts of the NHS, from hospitals to CCGs to national bodies, and social care will be encouraged to use the DTAC when they are looking at which digital health products they want to use. Digital tools will receive a pass or fail in areas such as: clinical safety, data protection, technical security and interoperability - and a score on usability and accessibility. NHSX CEO, Matthew Gould said: “The new assessment process will identify the digital tools that meet NHS standards on clinical safety, cyber security and data protection from amongst the thousands available in the market, and do it more quickly than before.”

The first version of DTAC that has been published incorporates the views of over 800 stakeholders who were invited to provide feedback on a draft version released in October 2020. DTAC has been designed to be used by any organisation that is buying or using digital health technologies. A small number of products that will serve NHS Improvement and NHS England clinical policy teams will be centrally assessed by NHSX. NHSX will work over the coming months to ensure that DTAC is correctly embedded into local NHS organisations and procurement frameworks.