A national report launched on Monday 24 October 2016 providing clear recommendations to the UK government on reforms to speed up patients’ access to innovative medicines, technologies and products.
The aim is to make the UK the best place in the world to design, develop and deliver healthcare innovations, with an NHS that embraces the new drugs and technologies that patients need.
Supported by and developed with the AHSN Network, the Accelerated Access Review: final report proposes reforms to the UK health and care system and how it works with industry to address the barriers to adopting innovation. The NHS has huge potential to be creative and innovative yet the system as a whole is slow to adopt new ideas and best practice. This leads to avoidable variation in patient care and system inefficiencies.
The report offers practical system changes, welcomed by ICHP and the AHSN Network, that will result in real benefits to patients, clinicians, the NHS and the wider UK economy. The report says streamlined processes could bring forward patient access to drugs by up to four years and patients will benefit from quicker access to medical technologies too. It also recommends a simpler process for digital technologies which are often developed by smaller companies, such as healthcare apps for managing long-term conditions.
Elements that will be supported by ICHP and the AHSN Network include creating an improved pathway for getting new medical technologies, diagnostics and digital products into the NHS at pace. This builds on the successful NHS Innovation Accelerator, which in its first year has supported the adoption of innovation into 388 NHS organisations and helped secure more than £17m investment to help scale health innovation.
Other elements already supported by the AHSN Network include creating mutually beneficial partnerships between medtech, digital and pharmaceutical industries and the NHS to address local health needs.
Dr Axel Heitmueller, Managing Director of Imperial College Health Partners, said:
“We are delighted to see such strong endorsement of the AHSN offer in the AAR. It is refreshing to see policy that recognises the need to simultaneously work with innovators but also those adopting innovation and providing them with the right set of capabilities and capacity.
“We are particularly excited about the strong emphasis on the transformative role digital technologies will have to play. DigitalHealth.London has begun to show how a regional digital health catalyst can work in bringing together NHS need and digital solutions in unconventional ways.
Dr Liz Mear, Chair AHSN Network, said:
“The AHSN Network has huge expertise through its connections across the NHS, academia and industry to deliver innovation at scale across the country. This is having a real impact in improving lives, saving money and driving economic growth.
“As a network we’ve had a central role in informing the Accelerated Access Review and we welcome and support its publication. The review is fundamental in joining up all the great work that’s happening in health and care to ensure that patients across the country have faster access to the latest treatments and technologies.”
