Policy number: SRP 006
Policy name: Medical Technologies Guidance (MTG)
Status: Overarching commissioning policy
Effective date: 1 April 2024
Next review date: 1 April 2026
The NICE Medical Technologies Evaluation Programme (MTEP) identifies and selects medical devices and diagnostic technologies and routes them to appropriate evaluation programmes at NICE.
It also develops guidance and advice on the effective and cost-efficient use of these technologies for the NHS and its social care partners, and where appropriate, commissions research on the clinical utility of technologies with an underdeveloped evidence base.
Medtech innovation briefings (MIBs*) provide a description of the technology, including its likely place in therapy, the costs of using the technology and a critical review of the strengths and weaknesses of the relevant published evidence. Their purpose is to provide a rapid service that gives objective information on device and diagnostic technologies to aid local decision-making by clinicians, managers and procurement professionals. By making this information available, NICE helps to avoid the need for NHS organisations to produce similar information for local use.
MIBs are not NICE guidance. They differ in format, contain no judgement on the value of the technology and do not constitute a guidance recommendation.
*From April 2023 NICE will no longer produce Medtech Innovation Briefings (MIBs) on behalf of NHS England. MIBs were commissioned by NHS England and produced in support of the NHS 5-Year Forward View (2014), as one of a number of steps to accelerate innovation in new treatments and diagnostics.
MSE ICB will not fund, and providers must not introduce new medical devices, diagnostics or digital technology recommended by NICE MTGs which give rise to changes in cost/activity/pathway without approval by the ICB.