Remote monitoring

In the second half of July, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published five new Interventional Procedure Guidance for low-intensity pulsed ultrasound to promote healing of fresh fractures at low risk of non-healing, fresh fractures at high risk of non-healing, superior capsular augmentation for massive rotator cuff tears, transaxial interbody lumbosacral fusion for severe chronic low back pain and two new Medtech Innovation Briefings for remote ECG interpretation consultancy services for cardiovascular disease and mechanical thrombectomy devices for acute ischaemic stroke.

Remote follow-up for chronically ill patients is included in a new trial that will start in Norway in autumn 2018. Six municipal cooperation projects received grants to participate in this trial in collaboration with the National Welfare Technology Program (Nasjonalt velferdsteknologiprogram).

HAS published updated program that defines priority areas of work for 2017, including evidence review as part of developing new procedure codes for robotic surgery, endoscopic procedures, and technology assessments of remote monitoring, dialysis, coronary stents and others.