Chronic wounds

In June 2021, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published two new Interventional Procedure Guidance (laser lithotripsy for difficult-to-treat bile duct stones and percutaneous insertion of a closure device to repair a paravalvular leak around a replaced mitral or aortic valve), one new Medical Technologies Guidance (Plus Sutures for preventing surgical site infection), and four new Medtech Innovation Briefings (RapidAI for analyzing CT/MRI brain scans, WoundExpress, Magtrace and Sentimag, and SYNE-COV). Also, four clinical guidelines were updated, and two new published.

On January 28, 2021, the Innovation Committee at the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) published the first overview of the 28 innovative projects on new forms of medical care that will be funded. The projects concerning the technologies belonging to the cardiovascular, eHealth, orthopedic, neurology, nephrology, and other technology groups received funding.

In January 2021, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published two new interventional procedure guidance (self-expanding implant insertion into the intersphincteric space for faecal incontinence and minimally invasive radical hysterectomy for early stage cervical cancer), two new medical technologies guidance (the PLASMA system for transurethral resection and haemostasis of the prostate, and the VAC Veraflo Therapy system for acute infected or chronic wounds), and six Medtech innovation briefings (Optilume for anterior urethral strictures, AI in mammography, AI for analyzing chest CT images, AcQMap for mapping the heart atria to target ablation treatment, and others). Also, two clinical guidelines were updated.

The report presents a summary of the reimbursement situation for the use of negative pressure wound therapy (NPWT) (procedure and medical aid) in Europe. The following clinical indications are considered: diabetic foot ulcer; venous leg ulcer; pressure ulcer. The analysis covers procedure coding, payment mechanism, reimbursement tariffs and policy restrictions in 11 EU countries including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. It is also possible to add analysis in the Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Romania, Russia and Turkey.