On January 11, 2021, a new version of the Nomenclature of Medical Biology Acts (NABM068) was released. One new code for detecting the genome of the influenza A and B viruses by RT-PCR was introduced.

On January 07, 2021, NHS England published an update of the Specialized Services Policy Pipeline (covering the period October 19, 2020 - December 08, 2020). Two new Clinical Commissioning Policies were added to the work program, and six new policies related to radiotherapy, neurosurgery, pulmonology, and in-vitro diagnostics were published.

On January 19, 2021, Belgian Health Care Knowledge Center (KCE) published a health services research report "Barriers and facilitators for eHealth adoption by general practitioners”. Findings from the research show that there is a wide range of factors contributing to the uptake of eHealth technology by healthcare professionals. These factors range from the quality of the eHealth technology, use, and user satisfaction, net benefits, individual, organizational, and implementation characteristics to country-specific factors (such as governance, standards, funding, or trends).

The French Ministry of Solidarity and Health constantly announces the new experiments initiated under Article 51 of the Social Security Financing Act. These experiments are focused on various topics concerning medical technologies and organization of care. Eleven new experiments were initiated in the fourth quarter of 2020. The experiments concern areas of diabetes, nutrition, home monitoring of patients on oral cancer drugs, bariatric surgery, and others. More details about each of the experiments initiated in the fourth quarter of 2020 is provided in this article.

On January 5, 2021, the President of the Russian Federation signed the Decree on the establishment of the Fund to support children with severe life-threatening and chronic diseases, including rare (orphan) diseases called the “Circle of Kindness”.

In January 2021, the NHS AI Lab has launched the guide to good practice for digital and data-driven health and care technologies to support innovators to understand what the NHS is looking for when it buys digital and data-driven technology for use in health and care. It is an update of the initially published guide in 2018, and now also reflect new initiatives, for example, the creation of the Centre for Improving Data Collaboration.

On January 18, 2021, a new version of the List of Reimbursable Products and Services (LPPR) was published. It contains new devices included in the LPPR list in November-December 2020, as well as other modifications made during this period. Newly-introduced devices belong to the cardiovascular (coronary stents), orthopedic, neuromodulation (deep brain stimulation), peripheral vascular (stent-grafts to treat aortic abdominal aneurysm), and other areas of care.

On January 20, 2021, the National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (INAMI-RIZIV) announced the reimbursement pathway for health apps. Health apps can now reach level M3 of the validation pyramid.

On December 30, 2020, the French National Authority for Health (HAS) published a report "Economic evaluation of telemonitoring to inform public decision-making", based on the systematic literature review. According to the results of the review, telemonitoring can be considered as a way to improve the organization of care and reduce care costs.

The Austrian Institute for Health Technology Assessment (AIHTA) completed a research project, “Lung cancer screening in risk groups: Systematic reviews of effectiveness and utility (part 1) and costs and budgetary consequences (part 2),” and published the reports in the mid of December 2020.

On December 28, 2020, the Government of the Russian Federation released a Decree which approved the program of State Guarantees in Health Care for 2021. The program determines the average level of financing of health care services, but most importantly, the list of procedures covered as part of the High-End Medical Care. The newly introduced High-End Medical Care lists changes concern the cardiovascular, neurological, ENT, surgical procedures, endocrine, orthopedics, dermatology, and other technology groups.

In December 2020, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published one new medical technologies guidance (Zio XT for detecting cardiac arrhythmias), three Medtech innovation briefings (ReStore Soft Exo-Suit for gait rehabilitation, Cytosponge for detecting abnormal cells in the esophagus, and Evoke Spinal Cord Stimulator for managing chronic neuropathic or ischemic pain). Also, nine clinical guidance documents were updated.