NICE sets out plans for ‘ambitious’ five-year strategy

The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has presented its five-year strategic plan for the future with the aim of becoming more dynamic and collaborative in its operations.

The strategy, developed following talks with key opinion leaders, external stakeholders, patients groups and partner organisations, will seek to put NICE ahead of the challenges presented by a ‘rapidly changing’ environment.

This includes refocusing on reducing health inequalities and bureaucracy while accelerating access to the latest and most effective treatments.

The new plans were shaped in part by the ‘huge global realignment in government and healthcare priorities’ caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

NICE added in its strategy that there has already been a ‘big shift’ toward additional collaboration and integration of services in healthcare, with the UK government having recently identified integrated care systems as a priority in organising and commissioning local services.

The increase of integration across services will impact ‘not only what NICE is commissioned to do, but also how our guidance recommendations are funded, adopted and implemented’.

The new strategic ambition is reflected in four ‘key pillars’, outlined in its plans for transformation as:

1. Rapid, robust, and responsive technology evaluation
2. Dynamic, living guideline recommendations
3. Effective guidance uptake to maximise our impact
4. Leadership in data, research and science.

As part of the development of its new strategy, NICE also interviewed key opinion leaders from across the globe, asking them what the most significant changes will be in the next five to ten years in health and care.

They identified the six significant trends that helped to shape NICE’s strategic priorities, including: rapid pace of innovation; digital, data and real-world evidence; integrated care systems; increasing collaboration; tackling inequalities and economic challenges.

“The healthcare of the future will look radically different from today – new therapies will combine pills with technologies, genomic medicine will make early disease detection a reality and AI and machine learning will bring digital health in disease prevention and self care to the fore,” said Sharmila Nebhrajani, NICE chair.

“Our new strategy will help us respond to these advances, finding new and more flexible ways to evaluate products and therapies for use in the NHS, ensuring that the most innovative and clinically effective treatments are available to patients at a price the taxpayer can afford,” she added.