Cancer

The Danish government granted the Danish Regions an additional 300 million DKK to strengthen cancer care in 2024. From 2025, the government confirmed permanent annual funding of 600 million DKK for “Cancer Plan V”, expected to be published by Autumn 2024.

On October 10, 2023, NHS England published an updated work plan for specialized clinical commissioning policies development (as of October 2, 2023). Two MedTech-related policies were added to the program: Gamma Knife stereotactic radiosurgery for essential tremor in adults; Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy for the treatment of primary kidney cancer. The status of ongoing policies was updated.

In September 2023, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published three new Interventional Procedure Guidance (removal, preservation, and reimplantation of ovarian tissue for restoring fertility, transurethral water-jet ablation for lower urinary tract symptoms, cryotherapy for chronic rhinitis), and three Health Technology Evaluations using early value assessment (AI-derived software to analyze chest X-rays for suspected lung cancer, AI technologies to aid contouring for radiotherapy planning, KardiaMobile 6L for adults having antipsychotic medication). Also, two new clinical guidelines were published, and three were updated.

At early September 2023, the new version of the classification of procedure codes (CCAM v.73) was published. Several changes were introduced, including the creation of two permanent codes, one provisionally registered code, and three new grouping codes for 280 dental procedures.

In August 2023, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published one new Interventional Procedure Guidance (aortic valve reconstruction with glutaraldehyde-treated autologous pericardium for aortic valve disease) and one new Diagnostic Guidance (quantitative faecal immunochemical testing to guide colorectal cancer pathway referral in primary care). Also, five clinical guidelines were updated.

In early August 2023, the Polish Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Tariff System (AOTMiT) announced the start of the evaluation of several technologies in men’s health, neuromodulation and in-vitro diagnostics fields.

On July 17, 2022, the Austrian Institute for HTA (AIHTA) published four decision support documents, which provide recommendations regarding the inclusion of new medical interventions in the catalog of individual medical services of the performance-oriented hospital financing (Leistungsorientierten Krankenanstaltenfinanzierung, LKF) model, as well as three updates to previous decision support documents.

In May 2023, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) in England released two MedTech-related reports in its Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Journal, which endoscopic radiofrequency ablation in malignant biliary obstruction and screening for ovarian cancer. HTA Journal publishes research reports on the effectiveness, costs, and broader impact of health technologies for those who use, manage, and provide care in the NHS and informs National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance.

On April 28, 2023, the NHS Cancer Programme awarded £12.1 million to six innovations that improve the early detection and diagnosis of cancer. Awarded medical devices, in-vitro diagnostics, and digital health solutions are used to diagnose bowel, skin, liver, breast, ovarian, and esophageal cancer. They have proven their efficacy and clinical effectiveness and will be funded over the next 18 months to support rollout and real-world testing.

In April 2023, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published seven new Interventional Procedure Guidance (concerned Daytime intraoral neuromuscular electrical tongue stimulation, endoscopic ultrasound-guided biliary drainage, maximal cytoreductive surgery in ovarian cancer, percutaneous thoracic duct embolization, radiofrequency ablation for spinal metastases, high-intensity focused ultrasound for prostate cancer), one new Medical Technologies Guidance (AposHealth for knee osteoarthritis), and one Medtech Innovation Briefing (Fasciotens for abdominal wall closure). Also, three clinical guidelines were updated.

In April 2023, Swedish Medical Technologies Product (MTP) Council recommended that Magtrace and Sentimag be used for locating sentinel lymph nodes in breast cancer. The products were evaluated within the Orderly introduction framework, in which all Swedish regions collaborate to manage the national introduction of innovative medical technologies.

In March 2023, the Dutch Healthcare Institute (Zorginstituut Nederland, ZIN) announced two more projects which received a subsidy under the "Subsidy scheme for promising care" in 2023 for research of focal therapy in intermediate risk prostate cancer and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in paresis due to the cerebral infarction or cerebral hemorrhage.