Resource Hub

Topic : Innovation Type : Report

The Life Sciences Vision identified the opportunity that HealthTech presents for UK patients, our health and care system and the wider UK economy. The UK and the NHS face tremendous challenges and HealthTech holds many of the solutions necessary to deliver improved patient outcomes, facilitate transformation to more sustainable models of health and care delivery, and drive economic growth. 

To seize these opportunities, over the intended 10 year time frame, the Vision aims to create an ‘outstanding business environment’ for HealthTech, and ‘support the NHS to test, purchase and spread innovative technologies more effectively’.

There has been progress over the first 18 months of the Vision, the increased responsibility for innovation throughout the system and the recent launch of the Early Value Assessment scheme, are just two examples. However, the lived experience for the HealthTech industry demonstrates there is still considerable work to be done to achieve the ambitions laid out in the Vision within its time frame.

A recent survey of the industry indicates that the UK is falling behind our global competitors as a place to do business. When compared to the US and European markets, the UK is facing significant challenges in its ability to test, purchase and spread innovative technologies. A fragmented and complex support eco-system, without a direct link to adoption by the NHS and highly aggressive procurement practices, with a focus on cost over value, are limiting the potential the industry has to offer.

The survey, however, also identifies tangible solutions, such as developing a strategic mechanism for value based procurement and continuing to accelerate the UK’s ability to support the development of real-world evidence. Implementing the recommendations included in this report will help us to not only mitigate the challenges, but to ensure the UK is a global hub for HealthTech, delivering lifesaving and life enhancing technologies to UK patients.