Taking research to reality: How the health technology industry has a new route to market in Wales

Do you know a non-medicine health technology or innovative project that can improve the quality of care in Wales?

Anyone can suggest a non-medicine health technology to Health Technology Wales, an organisation that supports the identification, appraisal and adoption of non-medicine health technologies into Welsh health and care settings.

These submissions are called ‘topics’ and they can come from all sorts of places, including; patients, members of the public, NHS Wales or industry itself.

What are non-medicine health technologies?

Our remit includes (but isn’t limited to) medical devices, procedures, rehabilitation, therapies and models of care.

These technologies can vary from relatively simple items like wound dressings, through to complex robotic surgical equipment. They can even include digital technologies like smart phone apps, which are used by most people on a daily basis.

Click here to see topics already submitted to Health Technology Wales.

How can I submit a topic?

We recently held an Open Topic Call in March and April 2019. This was an awareness raising campaign to attract topic submissions and plan the work programme for the year ahead.

However, we accept topic submissions at any time of the year! If you have a non-medicine health technology or innovative project you think we could look at, then visit www.healthtechnology.wales/suggest-a-topic to take the next steps.

What happens after I submit a topic?

Initially, our team will do a brief literature search to see if there’s enough evidence to appraise the technology and produce a Topic Exploration Report. This helps to decide whether the topic is appropriate to add to the work programme for a full appraisal. 

When added to the work programme, the team and multi-disciplinary groups will conduct a health technology assessment. This is a full appraisal of the best available evidence and expertise.

We will publish an Evidence Appraisal Report and Guidance when the appraisal is complete. This is sent out to key stakeholders working within NHS Wales and the broader care sector to help evidence-informed decision making.

NHS Wales and care services are expected to ‘Adopt’ this Guidance or be able to justify why they haven’t.

Click here for more detail on the Health Technology Wales appraisal process.