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UK Plugs Into ‘Golden Period’ For Medtech Innovation

 
• By Ashley Yeo

The “what” and the “how” involved in bringing medical technology to market for adoption by health-care systems is changing fast. The UK is laying the groundwork to be a global medtech innovation champion with two new tools: NHS England’s Long Term Plan and the newly boosted Accelerated Access Collaborative. The AAC's first chief executive, Sam Roberts, has been profiling her role in this prospective UK market access transformation.

AI hand reaches

A lot of health-care industry planning for the future has happened in the ten years since the UK Office for Life Sciences (OLS) was set up as a bridge between the health and business ministries’ areas of responsibility around innovation, clinical research and market access. The OLS was founded to create a virtuous circle, bringing together health and wealth, and including job creation and the development of health technology for patients in the UK, enabling them to swiftly return to being contributors to the economy. (Also see "UK medtech needs to seize moment and make most of OLS" - Medtech Insight, 22 July, 2009.)

More recently, the UK has redoubled its efforts in this direction, releasing the Industrial Strategy in 2017. This was followed by the Life Sciences Industrial Strategy (LSIS). Authored by Sir John Bell, the LSIS was a non-government document aimed at creating a coherent vision for life sciences in the UK. It brought government and industry another step closer together, and subsequently led to two “sector deals” for medtech

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