November 2025 Med Tech-related health technology assessments from the NIHR in England

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funds valuable independent research for health and social care decision-makers in England. Reports from the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme are published in the NIHR HTA Journal and inform the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance. 

In October 2025, four Med Tech-related assessments were published in the NIHR HTA Journal. Examples of evaluations are provided below:

• The Knee Arthroplasty versus Joint Distraction Study for Osteoarthritis (KARDS) based on an internal pilot trial. The study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of knee joint distraction compared to knee replacement in terms of patient-reported pain during the 12 months post-surgery, using the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcomes Score pain score as the primary outcome. The reduced research capacity and suspension of elective surgery following the COVID-19 pandemic created significant recruitment barriers. Despite early termination, the study demonstrated that patients were willing to participate in a trial investigating a novel treatment for knee osteoarthritis, and the trial was feasible and implementable. The limited results indicated that the technique is safe with no safety concerns. The clinical and cost-effectiveness of knee joint distraction remains uncertain.
• Minimally invasive thoracoscopically-guided right minithoracotomy versus conventional sternotomy for mitral valve repair based on the UK Mini Mitral multicentre randomized controlled study. It was concluded that minithoracotomy is not superior to sternotomy in recovery of physical function at 12 weeks. Minithoracotomy achieves high rates and quality of valve repair and has similar safety outcomes at one year to sternotomy. The balance of probabilities favoured sternotomy as the preferred surgical procedure in the base-case analysis over the range of willingness-to-pay values society might consider worthwhile for a quality-adjusted life-year. Nevertheless, additional factors such as equity or patient preferences for one procedure over another may also need to be taken into account.

Other assessments published in November 2025 focused on the impact of procalcitonin testing on antibiotic prescribing and health outcomes in the UK, as well as comparing swabs with tissue samples for infected diabetic foot ulcers.

See the full details here.

This news is just one of about 300 market access news collected by our team in the premium subscription service Market Access Monitor every week from more than 80 organizations. Access our paid service to stay on top of all developments specifically for your products in Europe (reimbursement news) and globally (HTA news). Access is organized as an online Database and email alert formats. Contact us to get a free, three-month, no-obligation trial.