e-Health

On July 25, 2024, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) launched a funding call within the HTA Programme concerning ambitious data-enabled trial proposals (or “e-trials”). Proposed interventions need to be mature enough to be tested on a national scale. The application deadline is November 27, 2024.

NICE recently introduced a new centralized approach to prioritizing topics for its guidance and a decision-making body - a prioritization board. In July 2024, the decisions of the prioritization board were first published by NICE. Sixteen topics were prioritized, twenty were not prioritized, and one was withdrawn.

In early July 2024, Dutch Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) awarded seventeen projects under the Efficiency Research program, including four projects on e-health, two projects on diagnostic imaging techniques, two projects in orthopedics, one project on abdominal surgery, one project in gynecology, and one project in the cardiovascular area.

On July 10, 2024, the Dutch Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) announced the submission of grant applications for research on patient-relevant outcomes and alternative forms of financing for innovative treatment under the Medical Specialist Care and Research (MedZO) program. The submission of grant applications will continue until October 15, 2024.

In July 2024, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) in England released five MedTech-related assessments in its Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Journal, which concerned cloud-based device (CaRi-Heart) for predicting cardiac risk, remote continuous monitoring of Parkinson's disease, home-monitoring for neovascular age-related macular degeneration, treatment of pilonidal sinus disease, and cystatin C in glomerular filtration rate-estimating. 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.

In July 2024, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) released a report on proposed approaches to the economic evaluation of multi-indication health technologies (MIHTs) developed by the HTA Lab. Examples of MIHTs include circulating tumor DNA tests, polygenic risk scores, and virtual ward platform technologies, which can be used across multiple disease areas or multiple indications. This report proposes approaches that NICE could adopt for future economic evaluations of MIHTs and provides recommendations for implementing the approaches on pilot topics.

In July 2024, the UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) released an annual report from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024. The report provides a summary of the Committee’s ongoing work and accomplishments, including recommendations regarding the introduction of national population screening programs.

On July 10, 2024, the Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection (BMSGPK) informed that the federal government, states, and sickness funds had defined their priorities for digitizing the healthcare system within the healthcare reform. The corresponding document, “eHealth Strategy Austria”, was presented on July 10, 2024, outlining the priorities up to 2030.

In July 2024, SBRI (Small Business Research Initiative) Healthcare launched new funding competitions in four priority areas: antimicrobial resistance, women’s health, urgent & emergency care, and stroke. All types of innovations are eligible, including but not limited to medical devices, in-vitro diagnostics, digital health, and AI solutions.

On June 21, 2024, the Innovation Committee at the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) published the determined funding priorities for healthcare research projects (eight topics) and clinical guidelines (three topics).

On June 26, 2024, the document "Changes and innovations in the 2025 LKF model" (Änderungen und Neuerungen in den LKF-Modellen 2025) was published. The document summarizes the most significant changes and innovations in the LKF model for inpatient and outpatient care. The newly added procedure codes mainly concern e-health, interventional radiology, pulmonary and airways, and surgical procedures fields.

On July 2, 2024, the revised EBM (German Uniform Evaluation Standard) catalog for the third quarter of 2024 was published. The changes introduced mainly concern updating the content of several EBM sections with the respective comments and/or clarifications and introducing the new EBM codes for several companion diagnostics tests, for follow-up and evaluation of the “Kranus Lutera” health app, and for the services provided within the co-funded study on bronchoscopic lung volume reduction in severe pulmonary emphysema using thermal ablation (rp-RL BTVA).