NICE’s Prioritization Process: A Guide for Healthtech Developers
The healthtech sector is experiencing rapid transformation. New innovations, from AI-powered diagnostics to remote monitoring solutions, are constantly emerging, promising to improve patient care and streamline clinical processes. As the health and care system faces increasing pressures from an aging population and rising chronic conditions, there’s an ever-growing need for innovative solutions that can meet these evolving needs and optimize workforce efficiency.
NICE (the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) plays a vital role in this landscape. Through comprehensive evaluation and guidance development, NICE helps NHS practitioners and commissioners identify technologies that will deliver the greatest benefits for patients while providing the best value for the health service.
Your Route to NICE Consideration
The NHS Innovation Service serves as the gateway for having your product considered for NICE guidance development. While not every technology will be selected for evaluation, this platform is key to identifying suitable healthtech products for prioritized topic areas. Innovators cannot directly refer their product for appraisal; the NHS Innovation Service is the initial point of contact.
Andrew Walsh, Associate Director of NICE Advice, highlighted the importance of registering your product with the NHS Innovation Service as a crucial first step in a recent blog post titled “5 Tips to Help Get Your Healthtech Product to Market, Fast.” Furthermore, the route to NHS adoption can be complex for healthtech developers; careful planning and preparation are essential. NICE also offers a fee-based advisory service called NICE Advice to help streamline your development journey.
All NICE services are confidential and provided independently of its guidance-producing programs, ensuring no conflicts of interest. These services are available to both start-ups and multinational corporations, providing expert guidance at any stage.
Understanding NICE’s Guidance Pathway
According to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, approximately two million healthtech products are registered for use in the UK market. Given this vast number of innovations, NHS decision-makers require clear direction on the technologies best suited to address their most pressing challenges. NICE’s forward view addresses this need by highlighting priority areas for guidance development, which helps NHS organizations identify the most suitable technologies and allows healthtech developers to align their innovations with system needs.
Priority Areas for 2024/25
Understanding NICE’s current priorities is crucial for healthtech product development. For 2024/25, NICE is focusing on innovations addressing:
- Mental health
- Early cancer detection/diagnosis
- Diabetes
- Musculoskeletal conditions
- Women’s health
- Respiratory conditions
- Neurology
These priorities reflect the most pressing needs within the health and care system. The NICE prioritisation board will publish updated priorities for 2025/26 in June 2025; keep an eye on the NICE website or subscribe to the “NICE News for Life Sciences” newsletter to stay informed. Additional information can also be found on the prioritizing our guidance topics page of the website.
Early engagement through NICE Advice can help position your innovation for success, regardless of whether your product aligns with current priorities. NICE aims to tailor its support to your needs, whatever stage you’re at.
Let’s Start a Conversation
Ready to move forward with your market access journey? Get in touch with NICE Advice. Getting started is easy; complete the enquiry form with an overview of your product and the support you seek.
