In January 2018, the Institute for the Hospital Remuneration System (InEK) has published the List of the requests for innovation funding (NUB). Out of 705 requests for drugs and technologies, 171 (24%) received the positive status 1, and 72 of them were the requests for the medical technologies.

On March 12th, 2018, Institute of Health Carlos III has published an evaluation report on therapeutic efficacy and safety of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for complex regional pain syndrome sympathetic reflex dystrophy.

The German Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) has commissioned the Institute for Quality Assurance and Transparency in Health Care (IQTIG) to evaluate the guideline on minimally invasive heart valve interventions with minimum quality standards for hospitals that want to perform transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) or clip procedures on the mitral valve. The report has to be submitted by December, 2019.

In January 2018, Danish Health Authority published 96 new codes for the Health Care Classification System. These codes are used to classify procedures in Danish DRG system.

In November 2017, the Andalusian Agency for Health Technology Assessment (AETSA) published an evaluation report (assessed within literature review) on the utility of exome sequencing for diagnosed dysmorphic syndromes.

According to the recommendation of the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen), hospitals and clinics should not offer screening for prostate cancer with PSA tests with or without other supplementary tests before tissue sampling. The recommendation is based on that the benefit of screening for prostate cancer with PSA tests does not outweigh the negative effects on a population level.

In some cases, compulsory health care insurance reimburses an implant or an invasive medical device only if it is placed in a hospital that meets specific criteria.

In February, HAS published a set of decisions about add-on reimbursement of medical devices that were evaluated by the National Commission for Evaluation of Medical Devices and Health Technologies (CNEDiMTS). These decisions concern cardiac pacemakers, devices for aortic root replacement, orthopedic devices (double mobility cups, porous high-density polyethylene implants) and other devices.

Within the Work Package 4 of EUnetHTA Joint Action 3, femtosecond laser-assisted cataract surgery (FLACS) is currently under assessment by a team led by Emilia Romagna Region.

In the second half of February, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published two new interventional procedures guidance (unilateral MRI-guided focused ultrasound thalamotomy for moderate to severe tremor in Parkinson’s disease and supraciliary microstent insertion with phacoemulsification for primary open-angle glaucoma) and one Medical technologies guidance for transanal irrigation system for managing bowel dysfunction.

The Italian Ministry of Health published a report presenting the expenditure on medical devices for the national healthcare system at 2016. On a total healthcare expenditure for goods and services of 17.6 billion of Euros, 5.8 billion (33%) are related to medical devices.

This report calls for new approaches to scalling tried and tested health care innovations. It highlights the need to create the right conditions to spread this successfully across the NHS.