Innovation funding

In late June 2020, the Innovation Committee at the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) published funding priorities on its website. For the first time, the decision on the funding priorities was preceded by a consultation process. Healthcare stakeholders who are not members of the Innovation Committee were asked to come up with suggestions for funding topics and criteria.

On June 18, 2020, the Dutch Healthcare Institute (Zorginstituut Nederland, ZIN) announced four medical procedures which received a subsidy under the new innovative payment scheme: FFRct technique in the diagnosis of patients with chest pain; oral esketamine in patients with severe, non-psychotic, treatment-resistant depression; left atrial appendage closure in patients with atrial fibrillation and endolymphatic duct blockage in patients with uncontrollable Meniere's disease.

On April 27, 2020, the Italian Ministry of Health shared the invitation of the Italian “Alliance against cancer,” which is intended for all the interested companies that wish to participate in the CAR-T research project.

On March 5, 2020, the NHS Innovation Accelerator (NIA) announced the 11 high impact innovations that will enter the national accelerator in 2020. As outlined in the NHS Long Term Plan, the technologies that enter the award-winning NIA provide solutions that help prioritize areas for NHS.

The “Subsidy for promising care” scheme makes it possible to obtain temporary financing for care that looks promising but is not yet reimbursed from the basic health insurance package. The deadline to apply for funding via this scheme is April 7, 2020.

On the 17th of February 2020, the Innovation Committee at the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) invited external stakeholders to suggest topics and criteria for future funding. Moreover, the submission of proposals for members of the new pool of experts was announced.

On January 30, 2020, the Institute for the Hospital Remuneration System (InEK) has published the List of the requests for innovation funding (NUB), submitted by the hospitals until October 31, 2019. Out of 778 technologies, 201 (26%) received the positive status 1, which means that the evaluated procedure or medical device meets the NUB criteria and allows the hospitals to negotiate with the sickness funds for the innovation funding for these technologies.

Norway established in 2013 a framework “New Method” for the introduction of innovations into the health care system through either a national or hospital-based health technology assessment. In this framework, all innovations should undergo HTA before being funded. In January 2020, four new mini-HTA projects of medical technologies were launched in Norway: robotic-assisted procedures, ear reconstruction, continuous electroencephalography, among others.

In October 2019, an extra subsidy round for Evaluation Research was opened on behalf of the Evaluation and appropriate use of care (Zorgevaluatie en Gepast Gebruik, ZE&GG) for diagnostics and follow-up/aftercare within both medical and nursing care. The submission deadline is on the 28th of November 2019.

Outcomes Based Healthcare and My Diabetes My Way have been selected as Health Data Research UK (HDRUK) Sandbox projects.

In early September 2019, the Innovation Committee of the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) has published an overview of new research projects in the area of health services to be funded by the Innovation Fund in the future.